Hello Hello! The dead of winter is here and it is getting colder! The snow piles around me are getting so high that they are taller than me! I am very excited for spring to come! But, the work of the Lord is still going forward! People are reluctant to talk to us, (I would be too it being this cold) but you gotta do what you gotta do. The coolest part of the week was when we were waiting in the branch for our investigator to come and then we got a call saying he couldn't come.. well our next meeting wasn't for two hours! So, we had two choices in front of us 1) stay inside where it is warm and take a bus to our next appointment or 2) Show our faith and man it up through the cold whether for a couple hours and walk to our next appointment. Well, after talking about it we knew what we had to do so we went outside and walked... it was freezing! The worst part of the whole thing was that God did bless us! Ya that is right I said that is the worst part of the whole thing because he blessed us with contacts! We talked to people and got contacts, but the last thing I wanted to do in the freezing cold was take off my gloves to write down their name and number of someone (because I can't write with gloves on)! I have never not wanted to get a contact before on my mission.. but that is what I was feeling at this point. Well, of course when everything was said and done and I was warm I was glad that we did what we did and I was grateful for the blessings.
The mission is great! I have still not talked to Sasha because I don't want to make things worse.. but I am just waiting for the right moment to talk to him to just keep in contact with him. We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators from a neighboring city though! His name is Slava. He is 20 and is baptist. He has a really cool conversion story. When he was younger he got beat up at school and so his mom, to keep him away from those things, sent him to a Russian Orthodox school. He explain that the Russian Orthodox leaders taught and taught but they never opened the Bible. In fact, he said that they told him not to open the Bible and read it and that they were right. (which doesn't make sense because they claim that they believe in the Bible) But, he got skeptical so he read the Bible and then started asking them questions about why they do things contrary to what Jesus taught. They told him he sounded like a Baptist and to leave and never come back. So he did lol. He left and his life went downhill. He was smoking and drinking, but throughout this whole time he was still reading the Bible. Finally he came to the realization that what he was doing was not what God wanted for him. He got down on his knees and he prayed to God to take this addiction of smoking and drinking away from him.. he said he stood up and he was urged to read the Bible. He read the Bible and couldn't stop. From that day on he never had an urge to smoke and drink. He became a baptist and has read the Bible 16 times. He searched about our church and found the missionaries. (It was Elder Malanin my old companion in Kazakhstan) So they gave him a Book of Mormon and he read it. He really likes our church! So we met with him yesterday when he came into town and we had a great discussion about the Trinity! He said that he doesn't like how his church is not unified and that is what he likes about our church. We talked about the Book of Mormon and asked if he would be baptized if he came to the knowledge that The Book of Mormon was true and he answered of course. The spirit was very strong! I also asked if he had ever been to one of our Sunday Meetings and he said no. So I asked the Forsyths if he could sleep over at their house and then come to church the next day. They said yes of course and he came to church. I asked him how he felt after church and he said that he has not felt what he felt at our church in a very long time! Slava is great! He is a miracle! Now we just have to help him realize that God is telling him that everything is true! :)
Me and my comp are doing great! He is a funny guy! Or at least that is what people are telling me because I still don't understand his jokes! He is very experienced with small branches and how to help them become more unified and organized so he has brought a lot of help and knowledge with him that is really going to help this branch and it's members! :) Well I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Your son
January 17, 2011
Dear Brother and Sister Weihing,
We are enjoying serving with your son as we work together to build and strengthen Zion here in the Russia Moscow West Mission. We have noticed that he is particularly gifted in getting along with others. He is mature and kind and makes a positive contribution in the areas where he serves. We appreciate his desire to share his testimony of the restored gospel in what can sometimes feel like a challenging environment.
We have asked him now to help a new missionary. His companion is Elder Anisiforov from Odessa, Ukraine. He speaks very little English, but your son has learned Russian well. We are excited he is training a new missionary. We feel strongly that this new assignment is extremely important. May we share with you what President Thomas S. Monson said in teaching mission presidents at the MTC:
“Always select your outstanding missionaries to introduce the new elders, the new sisters to the field.” President Monson then paid tribute to one of the elders, a young missionary from Price, Utah, who served under him in Canada. President Monson said of this elder: “He never was a District Leader, never was a Zone Leader, never was an Assistant to the President but, if I were to name, on one hand, my most outstanding missionaries, he would be one of them. The reason was that he was such an outstanding trainer…. His influence could be seen in almost every missionary whom he trained and those who had been trained by those he had trained.”
President Monson then quoted the following passage from Doctrine and Covenants 84:106: “If any among you be strong in the Spirit, let him take with him, him that is weak, that he may be edified in all meekness, that he may become strong also.”
Thank you for sharing your son with us and with the Savior. We trust him to be an outstanding trainer who is “strong in the Spirit” and can edify his new companion. We appreciate your support for his efforts. Please know we love him.
Sincerely,
President Kenneth M. Woolley
Sister Athelia T. Woolley
Dear Brother and Sister Weihing,
We are enjoying serving with your son as we work together to build and strengthen Zion here in the Russia Moscow West Mission. We have noticed that he is particularly gifted in getting along with others. He is mature and kind and makes a positive contribution in the areas where he serves. We appreciate his desire to share his testimony of the restored gospel in what can sometimes feel like a challenging environment.
We have asked him now to help a new missionary. His companion is Elder Anisiforov from Odessa, Ukraine. He speaks very little English, but your son has learned Russian well. We are excited he is training a new missionary. We feel strongly that this new assignment is extremely important. May we share with you what President Thomas S. Monson said in teaching mission presidents at the MTC:
“Always select your outstanding missionaries to introduce the new elders, the new sisters to the field.” President Monson then paid tribute to one of the elders, a young missionary from Price, Utah, who served under him in Canada. President Monson said of this elder: “He never was a District Leader, never was a Zone Leader, never was an Assistant to the President but, if I were to name, on one hand, my most outstanding missionaries, he would be one of them. The reason was that he was such an outstanding trainer…. His influence could be seen in almost every missionary whom he trained and those who had been trained by those he had trained.”
President Monson then quoted the following passage from Doctrine and Covenants 84:106: “If any among you be strong in the Spirit, let him take with him, him that is weak, that he may be edified in all meekness, that he may become strong also.”
Thank you for sharing your son with us and with the Savior. We trust him to be an outstanding trainer who is “strong in the Spirit” and can edify his new companion. We appreciate your support for his efforts. Please know we love him.
Sincerely,
President Kenneth M. Woolley
Sister Athelia T. Woolley
Monday, January 17, 2011
Subject: To my Beloved Family and Friends!
Hello Everyone and I hope you had a great week. I am sure that you were all busy with life as usual and I was busy with saving peoples souls!
Well I guess that I will just start with the news of the week! Haha this time it is not good news unfortunately. Sasha's baptism fell through :( He came back from England and since then we have not been able to meet with him. Yesterday I got a text from him saying that he is having spiritual difficulties and that we can't help and even if we do try to help that it will make things worse. In short... not really the thing I was hoping for and it didn't make the rest of the day the easiest! I really didn't know how to answer him back, so I waited and later last night I wrote back and just told him that we were sorry, we care for him, we will pray for him, and also to never forget that the answer that he received that this was all true and that he needed to be baptized was not from man but from God. We are going to be praying for him and hope we can at least keep in contact!
Haha well other than that sad event my companion and I went to Moscow (again) for a training. It was an awesome training on how to become better teachers! We were at Presidents for the training and were able to eat some good homemade food which is never a bad things! We even had honey butter and taco soup! That is a rare moment in Russia!
Other than being in Moscow we had some meetings, did some contacting, studied some scriptures, and worked our tails off! It is so funny watching my companion... he is so confident behind closed doors, but as soon as we get out on the street in the real world doing the real work he is so scared. I remember that feeling of being scared to talk to people, but it is interesting to look at him and wonder if I was really like that when I was a Greenie.. he is funny. He is from Odessa, Ukraine which supposedly is known for their sarcasm ( honestly I don't understand russian sarcasm and apparently Ukrainian sarcasm either) but some people seem to think he is funny. He tries to explain the jokes to me, lol but I just don't think that they are funny. I will translate one joke that he told me... so a man is in a dessert riding a camel. He is riding and riding trying to get from point a to point b like any regular person. Well a man passes him riding a horse. The man on the horse makes fun of him for being so slow and speeds off. The man on the camel gets angry and so he starts hitting the camel to go faster and faster. The camel starts going.. the camel gets going faster and faster. The camel runs faster than he ever has in his life! Suddenly, the camel falls over from exhaustion and the guys on the camel says to the camel, "What? Are you frozen?!" ... I really hope that you are not laughing, because I don't think it is funny. He said that it is funny because how can the camel be frozen! They are in a desert! Haha and that is my companion...
Well life is great of course! I still love my mission and am just praying for Sasha really strongly right now! I hope more than anything that he can figure things out because he has searched for so long and he deserves this blessing! Well I love you all! thanks for the support and the prayers! You are amazing! Remember who you are! :)
Elder Weihing
Hello Everyone and I hope you had a great week. I am sure that you were all busy with life as usual and I was busy with saving peoples souls!
Well I guess that I will just start with the news of the week! Haha this time it is not good news unfortunately. Sasha's baptism fell through :( He came back from England and since then we have not been able to meet with him. Yesterday I got a text from him saying that he is having spiritual difficulties and that we can't help and even if we do try to help that it will make things worse. In short... not really the thing I was hoping for and it didn't make the rest of the day the easiest! I really didn't know how to answer him back, so I waited and later last night I wrote back and just told him that we were sorry, we care for him, we will pray for him, and also to never forget that the answer that he received that this was all true and that he needed to be baptized was not from man but from God. We are going to be praying for him and hope we can at least keep in contact!
Haha well other than that sad event my companion and I went to Moscow (again) for a training. It was an awesome training on how to become better teachers! We were at Presidents for the training and were able to eat some good homemade food which is never a bad things! We even had honey butter and taco soup! That is a rare moment in Russia!
Other than being in Moscow we had some meetings, did some contacting, studied some scriptures, and worked our tails off! It is so funny watching my companion... he is so confident behind closed doors, but as soon as we get out on the street in the real world doing the real work he is so scared. I remember that feeling of being scared to talk to people, but it is interesting to look at him and wonder if I was really like that when I was a Greenie.. he is funny. He is from Odessa, Ukraine which supposedly is known for their sarcasm ( honestly I don't understand russian sarcasm and apparently Ukrainian sarcasm either) but some people seem to think he is funny. He tries to explain the jokes to me, lol but I just don't think that they are funny. I will translate one joke that he told me... so a man is in a dessert riding a camel. He is riding and riding trying to get from point a to point b like any regular person. Well a man passes him riding a horse. The man on the horse makes fun of him for being so slow and speeds off. The man on the camel gets angry and so he starts hitting the camel to go faster and faster. The camel starts going.. the camel gets going faster and faster. The camel runs faster than he ever has in his life! Suddenly, the camel falls over from exhaustion and the guys on the camel says to the camel, "What? Are you frozen?!" ... I really hope that you are not laughing, because I don't think it is funny. He said that it is funny because how can the camel be frozen! They are in a desert! Haha and that is my companion...
Well life is great of course! I still love my mission and am just praying for Sasha really strongly right now! I hope more than anything that he can figure things out because he has searched for so long and he deserves this blessing! Well I love you all! thanks for the support and the prayers! You are amazing! Remember who you are! :)
Elder Weihing
Friday, January 14, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Hello Everyone from Yaroslavl!
Well things have been going great! My companion is doing awesome and is really helping with the whole Russian thing! He can help me with the language and I can help him know how to be a missionary! We have been working our tail off because we gave about half of our investigators to the sisters so that they would have something to start off with. We have been finding and finding! Christmas put a downer on the work because obviously no one could meet during the holidays... but we were able to come up with a cool idea and we made christmas cds and took those and pictures of Christ to most of the less active members! We are trying to focus really hard with less actives because our branch is getting stronger and now our missionary force has grown so we will be able to do more activities in the branch. Other than that we have just been getting the district in Yaroslavl organized and helping the sisters.
We did have a very cool lesson with Alex this week. We found Alex about a month ago and he has just moved to Yaroslavl. He speaks really good english as well as his sister and are very friendly and humble people. We planned on talking to him this past lesson about the Plan of Salvation but for some reason we started teaching and it wasn't right. Elder Forsyth was with us and so we just asked him to tell Alex his conversion story. He has a very cool and powerful conversion story about reading the Book of Mormon. In short, he came to church and the bishop after the meeting talked to him and asked him to read the Book of Mormon and said that he could tell him what he knows, but in order to know himself he should read and pray about the book. With time he read and prayed and he got his answer. In reality it is a very strong story and is central to our message to everyone. It was an amazing lesson and the spirit was very strong! We could tell that Alex felt something strong and we asked him to do exactly what Elder Forsyth did.. read and pray. He promised. Him and his sister are awesome and I know that if they will read and pray they will get their answer and they will know what we know. This is the true Church of Christ.
Well that is basically my week! I love you all! remember who you are!
Elder Weihing
Well things have been going great! My companion is doing awesome and is really helping with the whole Russian thing! He can help me with the language and I can help him know how to be a missionary! We have been working our tail off because we gave about half of our investigators to the sisters so that they would have something to start off with. We have been finding and finding! Christmas put a downer on the work because obviously no one could meet during the holidays... but we were able to come up with a cool idea and we made christmas cds and took those and pictures of Christ to most of the less active members! We are trying to focus really hard with less actives because our branch is getting stronger and now our missionary force has grown so we will be able to do more activities in the branch. Other than that we have just been getting the district in Yaroslavl organized and helping the sisters.
We did have a very cool lesson with Alex this week. We found Alex about a month ago and he has just moved to Yaroslavl. He speaks really good english as well as his sister and are very friendly and humble people. We planned on talking to him this past lesson about the Plan of Salvation but for some reason we started teaching and it wasn't right. Elder Forsyth was with us and so we just asked him to tell Alex his conversion story. He has a very cool and powerful conversion story about reading the Book of Mormon. In short, he came to church and the bishop after the meeting talked to him and asked him to read the Book of Mormon and said that he could tell him what he knows, but in order to know himself he should read and pray about the book. With time he read and prayed and he got his answer. In reality it is a very strong story and is central to our message to everyone. It was an amazing lesson and the spirit was very strong! We could tell that Alex felt something strong and we asked him to do exactly what Elder Forsyth did.. read and pray. He promised. Him and his sister are awesome and I know that if they will read and pray they will get their answer and they will know what we know. This is the true Church of Christ.
Well that is basically my week! I love you all! remember who you are!
Elder Weihing
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Hello From Moscow!
Well! A lot has happened since we last talked! We found out that Elder Smith was leaving Yaroslavl to Minsk, I received news that I am going to be training a Greenie, We had an awesome New Years party where we watched a few movies, and now we are in Moscow and yesterday we had the Christmas Party. I am writing from the office right now waiting for my new companion who is going through an orientation right now. Wow craziness!
Elder Smith is gone. He was not very happy at first because he wanted to stay in Yaroslavl until the end of his mission.. but then he found out that in Minsk he can't contact people or tract and he got very excited! Haha Elder Smith hates doing those things! It was sad to see him leave because Elder Smith is awesome. He always kept the work interesting and fun. He will be missed by the members and by everyone here in Yaroslavl. The cool thing is that he will be coming back because this week we also set a date of baptism with one of our investigators and President is allowing him to come back and see it! I will tell you the story of setting the baptismal date at the end of my letter.
So I got news that I will be training a new Elder. I just barely met him and he is from Ukraine. His name is Elder Anicaforov. He seems awesome! I can't wait to get him back to Yaroslavl so I can show him how awesome the city is and how much fun we have! Missionary work is about to sky rocket in Yaro and he is even coming into a baptism! That is a great way to start your mission! I am so excited to train! I know it is going to be hard and maybe a little scary, but it is one thing that I was hoping that I would be able to experience on my mission because I know I will change a lot! It is going to be awesome!
The New Years party was awesome! We were just over at the Forsyths and we watched two movies, Its a Wonderful Life and Forever Strong! After the movie we were really tired and decided just to go home and go to bed instead of stay up and watch the fireworks and drunk people go crazy. We have had to be very careful this past week and we will have to be really careful this next week because people here seem to celebrate a week before the holidays and a week after. No worries though, nothing has happened so far. We also had a Christmas Party in Moscow yesterday with the whole mission. It was awesome of course! We ate food, played dodge ball, and watched Toy Story 3 and Goofy Movie in Russian. It is always great to be together with all of the missionaries! Inspirational!
So just a few experiences from this past week. Sunday was another crazy day! Unfortunately, there were not a lot of people at church because of the New Year, that is including our branch president and first counselor. So, I had to conduct the meeting and pass the sacrament. Haha it was a really interesting experience to have... stand up and announce that the sacrament is going to be next and then go down from the stand and do the sacrament. But, you gotta do what you gotta do I guess. Haha I didn't know who to pass for first because I was conducting the meeting but I was passing! Kind of one of those awkward experiences!
So.. now how we set the baptismal date with Sasha. Sasha is the guy who wanted to become the Catholic Priest and doesn't want to disappoint his grandma by being baptized into our church. Elder Smith had left to Moscow by himself to get his Belarussian Visa and I stayed with the Forsyths. On the day that I was with them Elder Forsyth and I had a meeting with Sasha. The lesson was so weird from the beginning! We had given him chapters to read about the 2000 Stripling Warriors to help him to gain some courage to talk to his grandmother who lives in England about our church. We were talking about the chapters and how much courage the 2000 Warriors had and he just was not making the connection and seemed like he wasn't understanding... I could tell something had happened so near the end he started telling us what had happened. He said that this past week was so difficult for him. He is a work a holic and it was the end of the year.. deadline time with all the work he has had going on. He was working hard and got really sick and he prayed and prayed for help to get better. Well, his prayer was answered and he was soon feeling well and was able to finish his work. After that he kept praying on whether to be baptized or not. He has always had a lot of doubts and told us that he wants to know everything about us before he gets baptized. He said what happened was after he was done praying he just had such a good feeling and basically realized that he doesn't have to know everything. He will always have doubts and questions and the Gift of the Holy Ghost is going to help him more to find those answers. He has a strong testimony about the church and all that we teach and that is what he has to rely on and find answers to other questions along the way. Basically... everything that we have been teaching within a three month time was finally understood in one prayer! The amazing part is that we always doubted what to teach and where to start because this man has been an investigator for years.. but every idea that we had and everything that we taught was the answer he was seeking and he found that out in that prayer. It was an amazing night and after Sasha left Elder Forsyth and I just jumped for joy and went crazy! Finally success! There is no better feeling in the world, other than the baptism service, that compares to the feelings you get after working so hard and praying so hard for someone and then seeing the fruits of your labor and hearing stories about the answer that they received to their question. One more amazing miracle to add to the list!
In short, this week has been anything but uneventful and I am very excited to see what God has in store for us within the next few months! More miracles, and with some faith hopefully more baptisms! The work is great and I am loving it! My companion is awesome and we are about to get some work done in Yaroslavl! I love you all and I am grateful for your love and support! You are all amazing people! The Church is true! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Well! A lot has happened since we last talked! We found out that Elder Smith was leaving Yaroslavl to Minsk, I received news that I am going to be training a Greenie, We had an awesome New Years party where we watched a few movies, and now we are in Moscow and yesterday we had the Christmas Party. I am writing from the office right now waiting for my new companion who is going through an orientation right now. Wow craziness!
Elder Smith is gone. He was not very happy at first because he wanted to stay in Yaroslavl until the end of his mission.. but then he found out that in Minsk he can't contact people or tract and he got very excited! Haha Elder Smith hates doing those things! It was sad to see him leave because Elder Smith is awesome. He always kept the work interesting and fun. He will be missed by the members and by everyone here in Yaroslavl. The cool thing is that he will be coming back because this week we also set a date of baptism with one of our investigators and President is allowing him to come back and see it! I will tell you the story of setting the baptismal date at the end of my letter.
So I got news that I will be training a new Elder. I just barely met him and he is from Ukraine. His name is Elder Anicaforov. He seems awesome! I can't wait to get him back to Yaroslavl so I can show him how awesome the city is and how much fun we have! Missionary work is about to sky rocket in Yaro and he is even coming into a baptism! That is a great way to start your mission! I am so excited to train! I know it is going to be hard and maybe a little scary, but it is one thing that I was hoping that I would be able to experience on my mission because I know I will change a lot! It is going to be awesome!
The New Years party was awesome! We were just over at the Forsyths and we watched two movies, Its a Wonderful Life and Forever Strong! After the movie we were really tired and decided just to go home and go to bed instead of stay up and watch the fireworks and drunk people go crazy. We have had to be very careful this past week and we will have to be really careful this next week because people here seem to celebrate a week before the holidays and a week after. No worries though, nothing has happened so far. We also had a Christmas Party in Moscow yesterday with the whole mission. It was awesome of course! We ate food, played dodge ball, and watched Toy Story 3 and Goofy Movie in Russian. It is always great to be together with all of the missionaries! Inspirational!
So just a few experiences from this past week. Sunday was another crazy day! Unfortunately, there were not a lot of people at church because of the New Year, that is including our branch president and first counselor. So, I had to conduct the meeting and pass the sacrament. Haha it was a really interesting experience to have... stand up and announce that the sacrament is going to be next and then go down from the stand and do the sacrament. But, you gotta do what you gotta do I guess. Haha I didn't know who to pass for first because I was conducting the meeting but I was passing! Kind of one of those awkward experiences!
So.. now how we set the baptismal date with Sasha. Sasha is the guy who wanted to become the Catholic Priest and doesn't want to disappoint his grandma by being baptized into our church. Elder Smith had left to Moscow by himself to get his Belarussian Visa and I stayed with the Forsyths. On the day that I was with them Elder Forsyth and I had a meeting with Sasha. The lesson was so weird from the beginning! We had given him chapters to read about the 2000 Stripling Warriors to help him to gain some courage to talk to his grandmother who lives in England about our church. We were talking about the chapters and how much courage the 2000 Warriors had and he just was not making the connection and seemed like he wasn't understanding... I could tell something had happened so near the end he started telling us what had happened. He said that this past week was so difficult for him. He is a work a holic and it was the end of the year.. deadline time with all the work he has had going on. He was working hard and got really sick and he prayed and prayed for help to get better. Well, his prayer was answered and he was soon feeling well and was able to finish his work. After that he kept praying on whether to be baptized or not. He has always had a lot of doubts and told us that he wants to know everything about us before he gets baptized. He said what happened was after he was done praying he just had such a good feeling and basically realized that he doesn't have to know everything. He will always have doubts and questions and the Gift of the Holy Ghost is going to help him more to find those answers. He has a strong testimony about the church and all that we teach and that is what he has to rely on and find answers to other questions along the way. Basically... everything that we have been teaching within a three month time was finally understood in one prayer! The amazing part is that we always doubted what to teach and where to start because this man has been an investigator for years.. but every idea that we had and everything that we taught was the answer he was seeking and he found that out in that prayer. It was an amazing night and after Sasha left Elder Forsyth and I just jumped for joy and went crazy! Finally success! There is no better feeling in the world, other than the baptism service, that compares to the feelings you get after working so hard and praying so hard for someone and then seeing the fruits of your labor and hearing stories about the answer that they received to their question. One more amazing miracle to add to the list!
In short, this week has been anything but uneventful and I am very excited to see what God has in store for us within the next few months! More miracles, and with some faith hopefully more baptisms! The work is great and I am loving it! My companion is awesome and we are about to get some work done in Yaroslavl! I love you all and I am grateful for your love and support! You are all amazing people! The Church is true! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Hello Everyone!
Christmas time has come and gone in America and I am still partying it up in Russia! I am lucky because I get to celebrate Christmas on the 25th and then on the 7th of January! Not only that I will get New Years like usual and then in Russia they celebrate something called Old New Years in the middle of January! AKA a lot of celebrating! Don't ask me what the Old New Years is all about because I really don't understand it all the way... basically I just think that they wanted to come up with another excuse to get work off and they couldn't get New Years off of their minds so they decided to celebrate it twice.
Christmas was awesome! It was great to see the family and talk to them! I was really blessed to be able to used skype and realize that not ever missionary gets such an opportunity! I feel quite fortunate! Christmas Eve we had a huge Christmas Party! It was a great turn out and everyone had a great time! We had a Spiritual Thought about Christ and we played games and at food and just talked. It was great! On Christmas day we woke up and were able to talk to our families and then we had a regular work day full of appointments and later that night we had a huge dinner at the Forsyths which was another great party! The Forsyths are awesome and really take great care of us! We are just too blessed and lucky!
Elder Smith and I have a huge teaching pool which is great! We have been so blessed! We have seen such small and simple miracles such as people coming to us and wanting to know more and unexpected teaching opportunities where we have seen the hand of the Lord guide us. We are so fortunate and blessed to be here. Things are not always easy and struggles come, but this week when things got tough Elder Smith and I decided to be happy and just have fun... we really felt the Spirit of the Lord and He blessed us. What a privilege we have!
Well I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Hello Everyone!
Christmas time has come and gone in America and I am still partying it up in Russia! I am lucky because I get to celebrate Christmas on the 25th and then on the 7th of January! Not only that I will get New Years like usual and then in Russia they celebrate something called Old New Years in the middle of January! AKA a lot of celebrating! Don't ask me what the Old New Years is all about because I really don't understand it all the way... basically I just think that they wanted to come up with another excuse to get work off and they couldn't get New Years off of their minds so they decided to celebrate it twice.
Christmas was awesome! It was great to see the family and talk to them! I was really blessed to be able to used skype and realize that not ever missionary gets such an opportunity! I feel quite fortunate! Christmas Eve we had a huge Christmas Party! It was a great turn out and everyone had a great time! We had a Spiritual Thought about Christ and we played games and at food and just talked. It was great! On Christmas day we woke up and were able to talk to our families and then we had a regular work day full of appointments and later that night we had a huge dinner at the Forsyths which was another great party! The Forsyths are awesome and really take great care of us! We are just too blessed and lucky!
Elder Smith and I have a huge teaching pool which is great! We have been so blessed! We have seen such small and simple miracles such as people coming to us and wanting to know more and unexpected teaching opportunities where we have seen the hand of the Lord guide us. We are so fortunate and blessed to be here. Things are not always easy and struggles come, but this week when things got tough Elder Smith and I decided to be happy and just have fun... we really felt the Spirit of the Lord and He blessed us. What a privilege we have!
Well I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Monday, December 20, 2010
Hello Family!
Merry Christmas in America! I cannot believe that Christmas is already here and that I am gong to be talking to you guys soon! Time has flown by so fast! I love you guys and you are awesome!
We just got back from Zone Conference and of course it was awesome also! It is amazing how good it is to see the rest of the missionaries after such a long time. It makes me realize how much I took for granted being in a big Zone in Kazakhstan compared to being in a two man city in Yaroslavl. Well, it is starting to get colder again so today it is -20. We are going to be out searching for a place to dedicate the city when President comes down in January, so I am sure we will check out some pretty places and I will be sure and take pictures! But, I am not promising that I will send them to you because we all know that I probably wont keep that promise.
The work is going great! We have a ton of investigators and are getting more each week! The Lord has blessed us so much and we are seeing so much success and growth, but we still have to do something to get someone to make that extra step to baptism! Our current best investigators are Sasha, Alex, Tatyana, Vladimir and Irina, Olga, Olessa, and Loodmila. Tatyana is a recent one that found us! She stayed after English club one day to ask a question and she now she is a great investigator! She asked us, " So do you guys just hang around your own members and hate other people?" Haha To me that seemed like a dumb question, but it was a very serious question from her. It seems like around here there is a mentality that you only are around people of your faith and you don't like the other ones. Haha but she like that we are friends with everyone and love all people because we are all spiritual brothers and sisters. She has great questions and seems to figure things out on here own. She asked the question, "Why are there so many churches in the world?" So we started explaining about dispensations and apostasies and right in the middle of it she stopped us and said, " So, what you are saying is that there are so many churches because people took the teaching of the original church and changed it to what they liked and they started their own church?" Wow! All we could say is yes and that is exactly why there was a need for a restoration of all things! I wish all people could understand like she does because our message really does make sense if you will just put everything together and think about it!
Well Russia is awesome! I still love my mission and I am not planning on hating it anytime soon! Time is going by way to fast and there is a lot still to do! Thank you for the love and support! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Merry Christmas in America! I cannot believe that Christmas is already here and that I am gong to be talking to you guys soon! Time has flown by so fast! I love you guys and you are awesome!
We just got back from Zone Conference and of course it was awesome also! It is amazing how good it is to see the rest of the missionaries after such a long time. It makes me realize how much I took for granted being in a big Zone in Kazakhstan compared to being in a two man city in Yaroslavl. Well, it is starting to get colder again so today it is -20. We are going to be out searching for a place to dedicate the city when President comes down in January, so I am sure we will check out some pretty places and I will be sure and take pictures! But, I am not promising that I will send them to you because we all know that I probably wont keep that promise.
The work is going great! We have a ton of investigators and are getting more each week! The Lord has blessed us so much and we are seeing so much success and growth, but we still have to do something to get someone to make that extra step to baptism! Our current best investigators are Sasha, Alex, Tatyana, Vladimir and Irina, Olga, Olessa, and Loodmila. Tatyana is a recent one that found us! She stayed after English club one day to ask a question and she now she is a great investigator! She asked us, " So do you guys just hang around your own members and hate other people?" Haha To me that seemed like a dumb question, but it was a very serious question from her. It seems like around here there is a mentality that you only are around people of your faith and you don't like the other ones. Haha but she like that we are friends with everyone and love all people because we are all spiritual brothers and sisters. She has great questions and seems to figure things out on here own. She asked the question, "Why are there so many churches in the world?" So we started explaining about dispensations and apostasies and right in the middle of it she stopped us and said, " So, what you are saying is that there are so many churches because people took the teaching of the original church and changed it to what they liked and they started their own church?" Wow! All we could say is yes and that is exactly why there was a need for a restoration of all things! I wish all people could understand like she does because our message really does make sense if you will just put everything together and think about it!
Well Russia is awesome! I still love my mission and I am not planning on hating it anytime soon! Time is going by way to fast and there is a lot still to do! Thank you for the love and support! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Monday, December 13, 2010
Almost Christmas in America!
Hey guys! I can't believe that Christmas is coming up so fast! It is going to be in a week or so and that means that I will get to talk to you through skype.. that is crazy! I can't believe how fast time flies! It sounds like everyone is doing great and just busy as always. I did get the families packages.. haha I already ate everything except for the squeeze cheese and crackers. Haha Elder Smith have basically been partying with all of the junk food from good ol america! Thank you for the letters! That is what I really wanted and it was great to hear from you all! Well, I bet you have wondered why I haven't really been sending any pictures since I have been in Yaroslavl and now since I got my camera back I guess I can tell you that it was broken for awhile so I had to go get it fixed. No worries though because I got it back and everything works fine!! Now I will be taking and sending a lot more pictures.
Well, the weather has warmed up a lot here. The past few days it has been -10 or so, so that is really nice! This week we are headed off to Moscow again because we have Zone Conference and Leadership Training so it is going to be another crazy week! Also, this week is the end of the 40 Day Fast for Missionary Work that we have been holding in the Branch. It has been a great thing and we truly have seen miracles during the fast! We have found two less actives who were completely lost and also got 6 new investigators! Unfortunately, no baptisms.. but those will come with time! We also got permission to rededicate Yaroslavl for missionary work, so President Wooley is going to be coming down in January and we will be able to see that. We are working hard to come up with new ideas to get the work going!
This past week the APs came down and we went on splits. It was pretty cool to work with them and we got a lot done. While they were here we picked up a new investigator, his name is Alex. He moved here about two months ago and about one month ago we ran into him on the street. He is about 19 years old and is awesome! He is a good English Speaker and is ready to hear our message. We met with him for the first time this past week and he also came to Church for the first time yesterday. We have lesson with him today so we will see how is goes! It is amazing how you can see that these people have been prepared for our message of the Restored Gospel. Right now we are teaching a lot of people who are ready to be baptized, but at the moment they have not excepted the invitation. In fact, one of our investigators is fasting about baptism today. Miracles happen everyday and now we are just waiting and working for more!
It is great to hear from you all and I love you very much! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Hey guys! I can't believe that Christmas is coming up so fast! It is going to be in a week or so and that means that I will get to talk to you through skype.. that is crazy! I can't believe how fast time flies! It sounds like everyone is doing great and just busy as always. I did get the families packages.. haha I already ate everything except for the squeeze cheese and crackers. Haha Elder Smith have basically been partying with all of the junk food from good ol america! Thank you for the letters! That is what I really wanted and it was great to hear from you all! Well, I bet you have wondered why I haven't really been sending any pictures since I have been in Yaroslavl and now since I got my camera back I guess I can tell you that it was broken for awhile so I had to go get it fixed. No worries though because I got it back and everything works fine!! Now I will be taking and sending a lot more pictures.
Well, the weather has warmed up a lot here. The past few days it has been -10 or so, so that is really nice! This week we are headed off to Moscow again because we have Zone Conference and Leadership Training so it is going to be another crazy week! Also, this week is the end of the 40 Day Fast for Missionary Work that we have been holding in the Branch. It has been a great thing and we truly have seen miracles during the fast! We have found two less actives who were completely lost and also got 6 new investigators! Unfortunately, no baptisms.. but those will come with time! We also got permission to rededicate Yaroslavl for missionary work, so President Wooley is going to be coming down in January and we will be able to see that. We are working hard to come up with new ideas to get the work going!
This past week the APs came down and we went on splits. It was pretty cool to work with them and we got a lot done. While they were here we picked up a new investigator, his name is Alex. He moved here about two months ago and about one month ago we ran into him on the street. He is about 19 years old and is awesome! He is a good English Speaker and is ready to hear our message. We met with him for the first time this past week and he also came to Church for the first time yesterday. We have lesson with him today so we will see how is goes! It is amazing how you can see that these people have been prepared for our message of the Restored Gospel. Right now we are teaching a lot of people who are ready to be baptized, but at the moment they have not excepted the invitation. In fact, one of our investigators is fasting about baptism today. Miracles happen everyday and now we are just waiting and working for more!
It is great to hear from you all and I love you very much! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Monday, December 6, 2010
Hello from Yaroslavl!
A crazy week like always! This week President came down to visit us. It was good to be able to chat with him and to get new suggestions from him. A day after that I left to go to Moscow because I had a Visa Trip this last weekend. It was my actual first real Visa Trip and it was insanely busy! We went to Kiev! Our plane was supposed to leave at about 8 in the morning but we ended up getting a three hour delay because there was big snowstorm outside. We planned to go to the temple in Kiev but were worried because the flight being delayed probably wouldn't allow us to do that. Fortunately, one of the missionaries who I went with used to live in Kiev and new his way around really well. So, we made it to the temple in time to do some Initiatories and had time to sit in the Celestial Room for awhile. It was the first time I have been in the temple in the field and it was amazing!!! The feeling that you get in the temple doesn't compare to anything else anywhere in the world! It is so calm and peaceful and warm. It was even cooler because I was there with a bunch of people that I came to Russia with from the MTC. It was the first time that I had seen them since we came so it was really cool to actually be able to communicate with each other in the language! Haha I was there with Elder Brown, Elder Waite, Elder White, Elder Breedlove, and with a Russian sister who was in the MTC. Also a cool thing, I was there with another kid, his name is Elder White, who I went to high school with! Small World!
Anyways, after the temple it was crazy! We were able to take a few quick photos and then one missionary with us wanted to stop by somewhere on our way to the Airport so we were in a hurry. This missionary was the one who used to live in Kiev and his name is Elder Hoffman. Great guy! Anyways, so he lived in Kiev teaching English, but while he was here he stayed with a family. The family lives close to the Airport and last time he was here he stopped by and gave them a Book of Mormon. We went back this time and they fed us and we sat and talked around for a little bit. They didn't read the Book of Mormon, but they are still an awesome family! So, that was pretty cool, but we almost missed our flight because we were over there for so long which would have been horrible! Everything worked our great though! I went back to Moscow and then headed back to Yaroslavl. I don't think I mentioned this, but this whole time traveling I was alone. Haha President Wooley trusts us a lot in this mission. I was able to leave my companion with the Senior Couple in Yaroslavl and travel to Moscow and to the office and then home again all alone. Haha I have never heard of that with any other missions in the world.
So this week is going to be a very crazy week as well! The APs are coming to work with us and then on Saturday we have a training for the Branch Presidency in Moscow. A lot of traveling!
Unfortunately, our investigators our still stuck in the same place. They are ready to be baptized, but have still not made the decision. I put their names in the temple and are hoping that that will help them get their answers!
But, we did have progress with one less active member this week. This less active member came to church for the first time while I have been here one week ago and when he came we invited him over for dinner. He came to dinner and we found out that he is very shy, humble, and quite. We had a great dinner and watched a short film about the birth of Jesus and talked about him. It was a very powerful lesson and you could tell that he was impacted by our message. We gave him a blessing and he started crying during the lesson. He told us a story about how he was living with a woman who hates the church. She made him choose between the church and her and he chose the church. He is a very humble guy! He came back to church yesterday for the second time and he gave me a pair of hand knitted shoes that he made for him. Haha it was really cool because when I paid him for the shoes he took the money and instantly paid it to fast offerings! We are going to continue to work with him. His name is Paval.
Well it is warming up a little bit here thank goodness! Today is only -10 so everything is going to be fine! Haha I was a little worries for awhile because it was really cold last week!
I hope everything is going great at home! I love you and miss you! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
A crazy week like always! This week President came down to visit us. It was good to be able to chat with him and to get new suggestions from him. A day after that I left to go to Moscow because I had a Visa Trip this last weekend. It was my actual first real Visa Trip and it was insanely busy! We went to Kiev! Our plane was supposed to leave at about 8 in the morning but we ended up getting a three hour delay because there was big snowstorm outside. We planned to go to the temple in Kiev but were worried because the flight being delayed probably wouldn't allow us to do that. Fortunately, one of the missionaries who I went with used to live in Kiev and new his way around really well. So, we made it to the temple in time to do some Initiatories and had time to sit in the Celestial Room for awhile. It was the first time I have been in the temple in the field and it was amazing!!! The feeling that you get in the temple doesn't compare to anything else anywhere in the world! It is so calm and peaceful and warm. It was even cooler because I was there with a bunch of people that I came to Russia with from the MTC. It was the first time that I had seen them since we came so it was really cool to actually be able to communicate with each other in the language! Haha I was there with Elder Brown, Elder Waite, Elder White, Elder Breedlove, and with a Russian sister who was in the MTC. Also a cool thing, I was there with another kid, his name is Elder White, who I went to high school with! Small World!
Anyways, after the temple it was crazy! We were able to take a few quick photos and then one missionary with us wanted to stop by somewhere on our way to the Airport so we were in a hurry. This missionary was the one who used to live in Kiev and his name is Elder Hoffman. Great guy! Anyways, so he lived in Kiev teaching English, but while he was here he stayed with a family. The family lives close to the Airport and last time he was here he stopped by and gave them a Book of Mormon. We went back this time and they fed us and we sat and talked around for a little bit. They didn't read the Book of Mormon, but they are still an awesome family! So, that was pretty cool, but we almost missed our flight because we were over there for so long which would have been horrible! Everything worked our great though! I went back to Moscow and then headed back to Yaroslavl. I don't think I mentioned this, but this whole time traveling I was alone. Haha President Wooley trusts us a lot in this mission. I was able to leave my companion with the Senior Couple in Yaroslavl and travel to Moscow and to the office and then home again all alone. Haha I have never heard of that with any other missions in the world.
So this week is going to be a very crazy week as well! The APs are coming to work with us and then on Saturday we have a training for the Branch Presidency in Moscow. A lot of traveling!
Unfortunately, our investigators our still stuck in the same place. They are ready to be baptized, but have still not made the decision. I put their names in the temple and are hoping that that will help them get their answers!
But, we did have progress with one less active member this week. This less active member came to church for the first time while I have been here one week ago and when he came we invited him over for dinner. He came to dinner and we found out that he is very shy, humble, and quite. We had a great dinner and watched a short film about the birth of Jesus and talked about him. It was a very powerful lesson and you could tell that he was impacted by our message. We gave him a blessing and he started crying during the lesson. He told us a story about how he was living with a woman who hates the church. She made him choose between the church and her and he chose the church. He is a very humble guy! He came back to church yesterday for the second time and he gave me a pair of hand knitted shoes that he made for him. Haha it was really cool because when I paid him for the shoes he took the money and instantly paid it to fast offerings! We are going to continue to work with him. His name is Paval.
Well it is warming up a little bit here thank goodness! Today is only -10 so everything is going to be fine! Haha I was a little worries for awhile because it was really cold last week!
I hope everything is going great at home! I love you and miss you! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
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