Hey Everyone! A lot of crazy and really weird stuff has happened this week!
Elder Eliason and I have been really worried about Igor because he has a desire to get baptized, but we are not sure why. He has a good friend in the branch and at first we thought he wanted to get baptized just for his friend. It is so tough to teach this guy because he is from Uzbekistan and does not speak Russian very well. He has such a lack of gospel knowledge that he does know who Christ is.... (ya I bet you thought that was impossible) and he has never heard of Adam and Eve! Wow start about having to start from the very beginning! So, while Elder Eliason and I were thinking about how to best teach him we came up with the idea (with help from the Spirit of course) to just load him up with all of our pamphlets and books and movies about Christ and the Restoration so that he could study a lot on his own outside of our lessons. Well.. when we went to our lesson before we even started teaching Igor started testifying to us about Christ and his Atonement and how thanks to Christ we can all repent and be baptized for Salvation! What an amazing Spirit! He has been reading and study everyday and has watched the Restoration movie 5 time (that is his favorite movie) and Finding Faith in Christ 3 times. He is doing great!
Now for the weird experience of the week... So last night we get home and are getting ready for bed when I get a call from a member. This member started out by telling me that the Spirit told her that she needed to call me and explain to me her problems... well before I could say much she just went right into a crazy story. Unfortunately, I can't tell you the exact problems that were going on but there was some pretty stressful stuff going on with her family and another member and how he was causing problems in their life and how they didn't want to talk to the branch president about it... (since me being a 21 year old missionary from America who barely knows Russian is going to be able to help)... but that is not even the weirdest part! Then she started going into another part of the story where she got really stressed out and wanted to give up in life and on God and on the Church and at that moment when that happened she got possessed by a demon! She said that she was screaming in a demon voice and had crazy strength and her husband came home and they got in a fight as he was trying to cast the demon out of her and some crazy stuff went down to where she was throwing him across the apartment and then at some point he was able to finally cast the demon out! She said she had been resting all day from the experience and started studying the scriptures when the Spirit told her to call and talk to me about all of this and get advise... the only advise I could give was that I don't have the proper keys and that she needs to talk to the Branch President and President Wooley and then I bore my testimony to her of the love of God and that was that.... WOW! Definitely not something that I was expecting to deal with this week!
WOW THE THINGS THAT YOU EXPERIENCE ON YOUR MISSION! GOTTA LOVE IT! :) Well I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Subject: Voronezh!
Another great week! Well Igor is still progressing well towards baptism! We have been teaching him a lot in the past week and he has an amazing desire and amount of faith! His baptismal date is set for the 18th of June, but I don't know if that will work out because though he knows the church is true and wants to be baptized he does not know all of the doctrine and completely understand it because he doesn't really speak and understand Russian very well. He is a great guy and will get baptized, but we just need more time to prepare him so that he understands everything! He already has friends in the branch so he has a fan club and some support!
We have other really great investigators that we are teaching. Two families, one older man from Armenia, one local doctor, a members younger brother, and a new man who we found from Africa who speaks French. Haha it is weird the people that you meet and teach on your mission! I never thought I would be in Russia teaching a person from Uzbekistan and Armenia and and African who speaks French! God really does lead us to those people whom he has prepared!
Well I don't really have too much more to say just that this work is great and I am having a blast! Russia is awesome and this work is awesome! Thanks for the letters and prayers! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Another great week! Well Igor is still progressing well towards baptism! We have been teaching him a lot in the past week and he has an amazing desire and amount of faith! His baptismal date is set for the 18th of June, but I don't know if that will work out because though he knows the church is true and wants to be baptized he does not know all of the doctrine and completely understand it because he doesn't really speak and understand Russian very well. He is a great guy and will get baptized, but we just need more time to prepare him so that he understands everything! He already has friends in the branch so he has a fan club and some support!
We have other really great investigators that we are teaching. Two families, one older man from Armenia, one local doctor, a members younger brother, and a new man who we found from Africa who speaks French. Haha it is weird the people that you meet and teach on your mission! I never thought I would be in Russia teaching a person from Uzbekistan and Armenia and and African who speaks French! God really does lead us to those people whom he has prepared!
Well I don't really have too much more to say just that this work is great and I am having a blast! Russia is awesome and this work is awesome! Thanks for the letters and prayers! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Subject: Life in Voronesh!
Well things have finally calmed down from all of the traveling! Elder Eliason and I have been working miracles like it is no bodies business! We have one baptismal date with a man named Igor from Uzbekistan and more coming up!
This last Sunday was an amazing day! It all started on Sunday A less active lady who is here as a student from Africa came to church and we happen to be her home teachers and were able to set up an appointment for later that day. (This lady is awesome! Her dad got the church started in her country and now they have a huge stake there) Well, she lives in the dorms and so when we go there she has to meet us at the door and the security takes our passports while we meet and talk with her. So when we get to her dorm we have to call her to have her met us at the door. Well, it turned out that we could not get a hold of her! We called and called and called and everytime the operator would just say that the phone is blocked or unavailable. So we decided to just contact around the building while we wait for a little bit longer and then head back to the branch for our next meeting. There was a moment when a guy was walking away from us and we ran him down and he immediately new we were American. He ended up being a professor at the school and speaks better english than I do!! He is even part of the American Mathematical Societ! I have no idea what that is or what it mean but obviously he is a genius! We had a great conversation with him and were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and give him a copy and he was very interested. So, we were pretty glad that we didn't completely waste our time in that area because we got a really good contact. So, we headed back to the branch. At this next lesson we were planning just to help a young couple with English. Well, it turned out that the husband barely knows english and the wife knows it great. So we started talking with the wife and then the husband just throws out all of these amazing questions! What is the Word of Wisdom? How do you pray? How do you know that God answers your prayers? What does it feel like to get an answer? What is the Book of Mormon? In short, the lesson turned very quick from practicing english to an intense gospel lesson! It is an amazing feeling to come away from a lesson knowing that God has prepared people and that is exactly what I felt at this point! They are an amazing young couple. Well, at this point it was time to go home so we started heading home pretty well pleased with what we happened but disappointed that we couldn't meet with the lady from Africa. Then we got a call from the lady and she was like where did you guys go? Why didn't you come? So we explained and she said that it didn't make sense that her phone would do that because she was sitting there waiting for us to call! (Basically at this point we took the not phone working as a sign that we had to contact and get the awesome contact that we got) but that is not all we found out from the lady that she needed us to come over and give her a blessing. She had come to church that day and when she left she said that she felt like she was forgetting something. Then she realized when she got home that she needed a blessing because she was going to be leaving to go to Moscow way late that same night when it is dangerous especially for strangers and then she realized that we were coming and could give her a blessing. So at this point we took it as another sign that God was trying to tell us that we need to help her and meet with her so we got permission to be home late and went to her house, gave a great blessing, and then came back home! What a day! throughout that day and I think throughout everyday many small things happen that we disregard or don't notice, but in reality God is leading and guiding us. He is blessing us and giving us the opportunity to bless his other children. We just have to recognize and act. This is what a felt and realized on that day. It was a great day full of man small and simple miracles and these small and simple miracles happen everyday and that is what makes a mission so amazing because for some reason you have the time to take a step back and look at how God is guiding your every step.
I love you all! Have a great week and remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Well things have finally calmed down from all of the traveling! Elder Eliason and I have been working miracles like it is no bodies business! We have one baptismal date with a man named Igor from Uzbekistan and more coming up!
This last Sunday was an amazing day! It all started on Sunday A less active lady who is here as a student from Africa came to church and we happen to be her home teachers and were able to set up an appointment for later that day. (This lady is awesome! Her dad got the church started in her country and now they have a huge stake there) Well, she lives in the dorms and so when we go there she has to meet us at the door and the security takes our passports while we meet and talk with her. So when we get to her dorm we have to call her to have her met us at the door. Well, it turned out that we could not get a hold of her! We called and called and called and everytime the operator would just say that the phone is blocked or unavailable. So we decided to just contact around the building while we wait for a little bit longer and then head back to the branch for our next meeting. There was a moment when a guy was walking away from us and we ran him down and he immediately new we were American. He ended up being a professor at the school and speaks better english than I do!! He is even part of the American Mathematical Societ! I have no idea what that is or what it mean but obviously he is a genius! We had a great conversation with him and were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and give him a copy and he was very interested. So, we were pretty glad that we didn't completely waste our time in that area because we got a really good contact. So, we headed back to the branch. At this next lesson we were planning just to help a young couple with English. Well, it turned out that the husband barely knows english and the wife knows it great. So we started talking with the wife and then the husband just throws out all of these amazing questions! What is the Word of Wisdom? How do you pray? How do you know that God answers your prayers? What does it feel like to get an answer? What is the Book of Mormon? In short, the lesson turned very quick from practicing english to an intense gospel lesson! It is an amazing feeling to come away from a lesson knowing that God has prepared people and that is exactly what I felt at this point! They are an amazing young couple. Well, at this point it was time to go home so we started heading home pretty well pleased with what we happened but disappointed that we couldn't meet with the lady from Africa. Then we got a call from the lady and she was like where did you guys go? Why didn't you come? So we explained and she said that it didn't make sense that her phone would do that because she was sitting there waiting for us to call! (Basically at this point we took the not phone working as a sign that we had to contact and get the awesome contact that we got) but that is not all we found out from the lady that she needed us to come over and give her a blessing. She had come to church that day and when she left she said that she felt like she was forgetting something. Then she realized when she got home that she needed a blessing because she was going to be leaving to go to Moscow way late that same night when it is dangerous especially for strangers and then she realized that we were coming and could give her a blessing. So at this point we took it as another sign that God was trying to tell us that we need to help her and meet with her so we got permission to be home late and went to her house, gave a great blessing, and then came back home! What a day! throughout that day and I think throughout everyday many small things happen that we disregard or don't notice, but in reality God is leading and guiding us. He is blessing us and giving us the opportunity to bless his other children. We just have to recognize and act. This is what a felt and realized on that day. It was a great day full of man small and simple miracles and these small and simple miracles happen everyday and that is what makes a mission so amazing because for some reason you have the time to take a step back and look at how God is guiding your every step.
I love you all! Have a great week and remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Friday, May 27, 2011
Subject: Long Time No Talk!
Well, I finally found time to e-mail you! Sorry it has been so long, I was in Moscow and then this last p-day I was in Kiev on a Visa Trip. Wow! A lot has happened!
First of all Kiev was amazing! We BARELY made it to the temple session on time! It is a long story how that happened... Elder Brown and Waite and I landed it Kiev and we had about two hours or so to get to the temple so we were no too worried about getting there on time. So we started searching for a taxi and there was one guy (like the head of all the taxis) from Kiev helping us, but no one wanted to take us because the temple is so far away! Well, he finally found us a taxi and we started driving out there. We started talking to the driver and soon we found out the he had no idea who the guy was (aka the leader guy of all the taxis helping us) and the guy just told him to take us to Kiev and not to the temple! That is only about half way to the temple and we still had to pay the full price to the temple! Well, we didn't have time to argue about what happened so we had to give him all of the money, get out, and take the Metro as close to the temple as we could get and then take another taxi the rest of the way! Well, thank goodness the next taxi driver was the man! He was weaving in and out of traffic like I used to before my mission and we got there right as the session was about to start! God really blessed us because I swear it was impossible to get there in time!! The temple was an amazing experience! It is a very beautiful temple and we ended up seeing a lot of the missionaries in the temple that we served with in the MTC so that was crazy!
The week before this past p-day we were in Moscow. It was a good time! We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and got permission from president to use our p-day in Moscow on Thursday so we went everywhere! It was awesome! We went to the Moscow Hard Rock Cafe, and had Duncan Donuts, and we went to the WW2 Museum which is gorgeous! It Is huge! We went to the market and I bought some sweet ties for 3 dollars each and I also bought some pretty sweet Shapkas which are those huge russian hats! I also found out that there is a guy in Moscow or somewhere that makes the little doll things that you guys want but he paints all of the modern day prophets from Joseph Smith and on on there! Sweet huh! So I ordered some of those for myself :)
Well we have a lot of awesome work right now in Voronesh! We are finally done with all of our traveling for a while and now we can relax and focus a lot more on the work and our investigators! We set a baptismal date with a friend of a member two days ago. He is from Uzbekistan and his name is Igor. He is awesome! He is going to get baptized in about a month. We are also going to try and set a baptismal date with a brother of a member, and his name is Losha, this week :) We have found a lot of new people and now we are excited to teach them! It is summer and people are out and happy and now is the time to find and teach and baptize! By the way I also found out when I was in Moscow that my coming home date probably got pushed back about one week or so so that is awesome! I think now I will be coming home sometime in the beginning of November! Oh and if you all don't know they are finally organizing a stake in Moscow! Elder Nelson is coming to Moscow in about a week or so to do it... so you know what that means! Mabye soon there will be a temple!!
Well I love you all! thanks for the love and support and all of the letters! It is great to hear from you all! :) Have a great week!
Elder Weihing
Well, I finally found time to e-mail you! Sorry it has been so long, I was in Moscow and then this last p-day I was in Kiev on a Visa Trip. Wow! A lot has happened!
First of all Kiev was amazing! We BARELY made it to the temple session on time! It is a long story how that happened... Elder Brown and Waite and I landed it Kiev and we had about two hours or so to get to the temple so we were no too worried about getting there on time. So we started searching for a taxi and there was one guy (like the head of all the taxis) from Kiev helping us, but no one wanted to take us because the temple is so far away! Well, he finally found us a taxi and we started driving out there. We started talking to the driver and soon we found out the he had no idea who the guy was (aka the leader guy of all the taxis helping us) and the guy just told him to take us to Kiev and not to the temple! That is only about half way to the temple and we still had to pay the full price to the temple! Well, we didn't have time to argue about what happened so we had to give him all of the money, get out, and take the Metro as close to the temple as we could get and then take another taxi the rest of the way! Well, thank goodness the next taxi driver was the man! He was weaving in and out of traffic like I used to before my mission and we got there right as the session was about to start! God really blessed us because I swear it was impossible to get there in time!! The temple was an amazing experience! It is a very beautiful temple and we ended up seeing a lot of the missionaries in the temple that we served with in the MTC so that was crazy!
The week before this past p-day we were in Moscow. It was a good time! We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and got permission from president to use our p-day in Moscow on Thursday so we went everywhere! It was awesome! We went to the Moscow Hard Rock Cafe, and had Duncan Donuts, and we went to the WW2 Museum which is gorgeous! It Is huge! We went to the market and I bought some sweet ties for 3 dollars each and I also bought some pretty sweet Shapkas which are those huge russian hats! I also found out that there is a guy in Moscow or somewhere that makes the little doll things that you guys want but he paints all of the modern day prophets from Joseph Smith and on on there! Sweet huh! So I ordered some of those for myself :)
Well we have a lot of awesome work right now in Voronesh! We are finally done with all of our traveling for a while and now we can relax and focus a lot more on the work and our investigators! We set a baptismal date with a friend of a member two days ago. He is from Uzbekistan and his name is Igor. He is awesome! He is going to get baptized in about a month. We are also going to try and set a baptismal date with a brother of a member, and his name is Losha, this week :) We have found a lot of new people and now we are excited to teach them! It is summer and people are out and happy and now is the time to find and teach and baptize! By the way I also found out when I was in Moscow that my coming home date probably got pushed back about one week or so so that is awesome! I think now I will be coming home sometime in the beginning of November! Oh and if you all don't know they are finally organizing a stake in Moscow! Elder Nelson is coming to Moscow in about a week or so to do it... so you know what that means! Mabye soon there will be a temple!!
Well I love you all! thanks for the love and support and all of the letters! It is great to hear from you all! :) Have a great week!
Elder Weihing
Thursday, May 12, 2011
We had a great Mother's Day conversation. The amazing part is the ability to Skype and have a 5 way conversation with Elder Kenneth, (Moscow) Elder Jordan, (England) KJ, (Phoenix) Richelle, (Herriman:in hospital) and with us, (Herriman). The big news was the boys got to see Richelle's new baby! (Kellan) Below is Kenneth's letter! We apprecaite all your support and prayers! May you all be blessed as we have been by having Son's who are serving! We love you all!
---Kam and Suzanne
Subject: A new companion!
Well it was great to see you all on Mother's Day! Was so excited to see Kellan! He is definitely a cutie! It was great to see the family and talk to everyone. I am so grateful for your love and support and all that you do for me.
Well I really don't have any time to write this week because we got home from Moscow this morning at eleven and we have SO MUCH to do this P-day to get my companion registered in the city so that they don't kick him out! So let you tell me about my companion. His name is Elder Eliason and he is from Lariamie Wyoming! He is awesome! We are gonna do some work up in here in Voronesh! It was sad to see Elder Borodin go home, but I know that he was ready. He was a great missionary and a good example.
This past week was also the 9th of May! Victory Day! This is a huge day in Russia! It is like the 4th of July in America! It was crazy! There were parades and we watched fireworks and watched a lot of small shows that they put on on the street. A crazy day where we were not aloud to wear our nametags and contact because a lot of people were drunk!!!
We had quite the trip to Moscow and back! Haha we missed our train back to Voronesh so we had to buy new tickets for a later train. We had quite an adventure getting back into town!! But things are going good and I am excited to get to work with my new comp! We are gonna do awesome1
Before I go I just want to share a small experience with you all. Elder Borodin and I were on a bus and I saw this guy staring at me and so of course we started talking. To be honest at first he was not very nice at all!! He was of course very skeptical and was wondering why some american was here and didn't hide the fact that he doesn't believe that God exists. But, we talked the entire bus ride and very soon his attitude changed. By the end of the conversation it had changed from, "you stupid american god doesn't exist" to "you know what I am really glad that you started talking to me because you have changed my mood around. I am really happy right now where as before I was really sad." It was just a small experience, but it was the kind of thing that missionaries look for everyday. We are here to help people feel God's love and to lift peoples spirit and I felt it and saw it when talking to this guy. This gospel is true. This is God's work. We have a calling to help his children and through small and simple things we are reaching our goal!
I love you all! Thank you for all that you do! Remember who you are! :)
Elder Weihing
---Kam and Suzanne
Subject: A new companion!
Well it was great to see you all on Mother's Day! Was so excited to see Kellan! He is definitely a cutie! It was great to see the family and talk to everyone. I am so grateful for your love and support and all that you do for me.
Well I really don't have any time to write this week because we got home from Moscow this morning at eleven and we have SO MUCH to do this P-day to get my companion registered in the city so that they don't kick him out! So let you tell me about my companion. His name is Elder Eliason and he is from Lariamie Wyoming! He is awesome! We are gonna do some work up in here in Voronesh! It was sad to see Elder Borodin go home, but I know that he was ready. He was a great missionary and a good example.
This past week was also the 9th of May! Victory Day! This is a huge day in Russia! It is like the 4th of July in America! It was crazy! There were parades and we watched fireworks and watched a lot of small shows that they put on on the street. A crazy day where we were not aloud to wear our nametags and contact because a lot of people were drunk!!!
We had quite the trip to Moscow and back! Haha we missed our train back to Voronesh so we had to buy new tickets for a later train. We had quite an adventure getting back into town!! But things are going good and I am excited to get to work with my new comp! We are gonna do awesome1
Before I go I just want to share a small experience with you all. Elder Borodin and I were on a bus and I saw this guy staring at me and so of course we started talking. To be honest at first he was not very nice at all!! He was of course very skeptical and was wondering why some american was here and didn't hide the fact that he doesn't believe that God exists. But, we talked the entire bus ride and very soon his attitude changed. By the end of the conversation it had changed from, "you stupid american god doesn't exist" to "you know what I am really glad that you started talking to me because you have changed my mood around. I am really happy right now where as before I was really sad." It was just a small experience, but it was the kind of thing that missionaries look for everyday. We are here to help people feel God's love and to lift peoples spirit and I felt it and saw it when talking to this guy. This gospel is true. This is God's work. We have a calling to help his children and through small and simple things we are reaching our goal!
I love you all! Thank you for all that you do! Remember who you are! :)
Elder Weihing
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Subject: More Baptisms and It Is a Small World!!!
Hello Family and Friends!
What another amazing week! Pavel was baptized on Saturday! Ya three baptisms in two weeks... at this rate we will be catching up with Brazil in no time! I felt really honored to have the opportunity to baptize him. The service was very spiritual! There are two amazing clips that you have to watch that we watched after the baptism... The Reflections of Christ, and Come See the Light! Wow! TALK ABOUT AMAZING! Pavel is doing amazing and he had a really great experience with the Holy Ghost the other day that I think is worth sharing. He was getting ready to walk out the door and come to the church for a meeting with us and he went to his car and realized he forgot his keys. He said that has never happened before. He went back inside and he found his keys and started going out the door and the keys just fell out of his hands and dropped on the floor and then he heard a voice tell him to not drive today. It is just a small experience and who knows what would have happened if he didn't listen to the voice.. but I thought that was a very impressing experience considering he just got baptized on Saturday! Pavel is amazing and was prepared to receive the gospel! He even told us an experience when he met missionaries in another city that he lived and while talking to them he realized that our church was too good and that he didn't deserve to become a member of such an amazing church. Haha it is so interesting how things work out!!
Now... IT IS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL! Elder Borodin and I were teaching an amazing member here. Her name is Sister Kyznetsova. Well I found out that her daughters live in Utah. Then she said that her oldest daughter lived in Herriman and then moved somewhere else. I said that is where I am from and she was really surprised! She explained that she has been there about 3 times in the past 5 years. She started asking what street I live on and I said that I live across from the "Prayer House" aka the church building. She said that is where her daughter lived! Her daughter and son in law is Craig a Elena and I forgot their last name but... I saw I picture and now I totally who they are! They were in our ward but moved a few years ago!! She started talking about Bishop Briggs and how when she was at our ward everyone was so nice and Bishop Briggs came and saw her after church and all this crazy stuff and I was just in awe and didn't know what to say... so I said the next thing that came to my mind, "I probably bless the sacrament that you took that Sunday!" Overall it was a really interesting experience and now I have found my favorite members of the church here in Voronezh... or so I thought...
So there is this old, stubborn, hardworking, loving man in our branch here named Boris... I hope that you already understand where I am going with this... He is grandpas twin! We went over and helped him move firewood and almost everything he did reminded me of grandpa! He had all of the work organized and set up with all of the tools and special carrying devices (which I am pretty sure he made by himself) and he would show us how we should do it and then let us try and then just say no no no let me show you how it is done right. IT WAS JUST A SIMPLE TASK OF MOVING FIREWOOD! Hahaha I felt like I was home working with grandpa again! All I could do everytime he said we weren't doing things right and he wanted to show us how to do it was about grandpa and all of the many working experiences with him. It just brought a smile to my face haha. So.. maybe Boris will be my favorite member :)
This past week we also had Zone Conference. President Wooley came to Voronezh to change the Branch President and his councilors so we had the conference here. We found out the departure date of my companion and he is leaving for sure on the tenth and that same day I will be getting another Greenie! So.. looks like I am going to be training again. but this time the kid is from America not from Ukraine! I think his name is Elder Eliason but I don't remember for sure. I am pumped! It is going to be so awesome! Greenies bring so much Spirit and Enthusiasm to the work!
Well, I guess that I will see you on skype Sunday night! Jordan said that he is skyping for 45 minutes so maybe I will call around 9:30 Utah time so that I can see him for about 15 min! Well you are all awesome! I love you! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Hello Family and Friends!
What another amazing week! Pavel was baptized on Saturday! Ya three baptisms in two weeks... at this rate we will be catching up with Brazil in no time! I felt really honored to have the opportunity to baptize him. The service was very spiritual! There are two amazing clips that you have to watch that we watched after the baptism... The Reflections of Christ, and Come See the Light! Wow! TALK ABOUT AMAZING! Pavel is doing amazing and he had a really great experience with the Holy Ghost the other day that I think is worth sharing. He was getting ready to walk out the door and come to the church for a meeting with us and he went to his car and realized he forgot his keys. He said that has never happened before. He went back inside and he found his keys and started going out the door and the keys just fell out of his hands and dropped on the floor and then he heard a voice tell him to not drive today. It is just a small experience and who knows what would have happened if he didn't listen to the voice.. but I thought that was a very impressing experience considering he just got baptized on Saturday! Pavel is amazing and was prepared to receive the gospel! He even told us an experience when he met missionaries in another city that he lived and while talking to them he realized that our church was too good and that he didn't deserve to become a member of such an amazing church. Haha it is so interesting how things work out!!
Now... IT IS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL! Elder Borodin and I were teaching an amazing member here. Her name is Sister Kyznetsova. Well I found out that her daughters live in Utah. Then she said that her oldest daughter lived in Herriman and then moved somewhere else. I said that is where I am from and she was really surprised! She explained that she has been there about 3 times in the past 5 years. She started asking what street I live on and I said that I live across from the "Prayer House" aka the church building. She said that is where her daughter lived! Her daughter and son in law is Craig a Elena and I forgot their last name but... I saw I picture and now I totally who they are! They were in our ward but moved a few years ago!! She started talking about Bishop Briggs and how when she was at our ward everyone was so nice and Bishop Briggs came and saw her after church and all this crazy stuff and I was just in awe and didn't know what to say... so I said the next thing that came to my mind, "I probably bless the sacrament that you took that Sunday!" Overall it was a really interesting experience and now I have found my favorite members of the church here in Voronezh... or so I thought...
So there is this old, stubborn, hardworking, loving man in our branch here named Boris... I hope that you already understand where I am going with this... He is grandpas twin! We went over and helped him move firewood and almost everything he did reminded me of grandpa! He had all of the work organized and set up with all of the tools and special carrying devices (which I am pretty sure he made by himself) and he would show us how we should do it and then let us try and then just say no no no let me show you how it is done right. IT WAS JUST A SIMPLE TASK OF MOVING FIREWOOD! Hahaha I felt like I was home working with grandpa again! All I could do everytime he said we weren't doing things right and he wanted to show us how to do it was about grandpa and all of the many working experiences with him. It just brought a smile to my face haha. So.. maybe Boris will be my favorite member :)
This past week we also had Zone Conference. President Wooley came to Voronezh to change the Branch President and his councilors so we had the conference here. We found out the departure date of my companion and he is leaving for sure on the tenth and that same day I will be getting another Greenie! So.. looks like I am going to be training again. but this time the kid is from America not from Ukraine! I think his name is Elder Eliason but I don't remember for sure. I am pumped! It is going to be so awesome! Greenies bring so much Spirit and Enthusiasm to the work!
Well, I guess that I will see you on skype Sunday night! Jordan said that he is skyping for 45 minutes so maybe I will call around 9:30 Utah time so that I can see him for about 15 min! Well you are all awesome! I love you! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Subject: A Baptism down and more the come!
Well! The big news... we traveled to Yaroslavl this past week and Sasha did get baptized! Finally! After his fourth baptismal date! Nothing short of a miracle! The Elders there rented a pool and there were two baptisms there (haha after the baptism the pool was still open so some of the members and the people that got baptized stayed to swim). The second person was a lady from Africa named Grace and one of our less actives was able to baptize her so that was even more amazing to see! The even better news is that there will definately be one more baptism coming up in Yaroslavl, Sergei (or as we call him short guy who has read the Bible and Koran, all the names are the same here so just saying Sergei brings up to many people!). That is not all of the baptisms, on Saturday is going to be yet another baptism but it will be here in Voronesh! Our Golden Investigator Pavel is going to get baptized!
So... to talk about Golden People who have been prepared for the Gospel! Pavel is about as close as it gets! Met him on the street, he called us, he came to english club and then to church, he had an amazing experience and church where the spirit was so strong, we taught him all of the lessons within two weeks, he accepted everything, and now he wants to get everything as soon as he can! He wants to get baptized, get the Gift of the Holy Ghost, get the priesthood, and he even is planning on the going to the temple as soon as he is able to! We had an amazing lesson about temples yesterday where he told us about his ancestors and how he really wants to do there work.. he told a story about his grandpa dying which obviously about made me bust out into tears.. the spirit was so strong I can't even explain the feeling! Just a peace and a silence! Usually Pavel is such a talker but he was quite the whole time and just was on the edge of his chair ready to hear what was coming next! He said that he wants to drive out the Kiev next week and do baptisms for the dead!! He is just amazing! I have not met anyone on my entire mission as prepared as Pavel has been!
The past two days have really been interesting! Elder Borodin and I have been meeting with missionaries and pastors from other churches! The day before yesterday we met with a missionary from the Russian Orthodox Church... man was the frustrating! He has the Doctrine and Covenants and Book of Mormon. He had one question... how do you know that your answer that this is true was from God and not from the Devil... well is answer to that I was prompted to go the D&C 9 where Oliver Cowdery is being counciled on prayer... before we could even get through with one answer he had 100 more questions and would not give as an opportunity to answer any of them.. to say the least I was not very impressed because he strategy was not to teach by the spirit but to teach by proof and control...
Then yesterday we met with a pastor from another church (sorry I do not know how it translates in English) basically they believe in a very interesting way in the Gift of Tongue... this is the process... in groups one of them prays in Russian and all of the others around that person start jabbering.... and this is what they believe to be the Gift of Tongues. So here we have the main person pronouncing the prayers... and about fifty other people going crazy raising their hands up and chanting in "a different language" which they themselves don't understand. This meeting was focused on the Book of Mormon and Joseph. We very clearly and boldly preached our message and told them how to know whether it was true. Then the pastor started asking how many moms I had and asked if we knew that Joseph Smith was mentally ill. Haha... yet another interesting experience! Although... the choir sang very beautifully :)
The weather is finally getting warm here! It is time to take off the jacket and the let the white shirt and tie and name tag shine! People are definately going to know who we are without a mistake!! We have a great and a marvelous work that we are doing! It is great! I love you all! Thank you for the prayers and support! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Well! The big news... we traveled to Yaroslavl this past week and Sasha did get baptized! Finally! After his fourth baptismal date! Nothing short of a miracle! The Elders there rented a pool and there were two baptisms there (haha after the baptism the pool was still open so some of the members and the people that got baptized stayed to swim). The second person was a lady from Africa named Grace and one of our less actives was able to baptize her so that was even more amazing to see! The even better news is that there will definately be one more baptism coming up in Yaroslavl, Sergei (or as we call him short guy who has read the Bible and Koran, all the names are the same here so just saying Sergei brings up to many people!). That is not all of the baptisms, on Saturday is going to be yet another baptism but it will be here in Voronesh! Our Golden Investigator Pavel is going to get baptized!
So... to talk about Golden People who have been prepared for the Gospel! Pavel is about as close as it gets! Met him on the street, he called us, he came to english club and then to church, he had an amazing experience and church where the spirit was so strong, we taught him all of the lessons within two weeks, he accepted everything, and now he wants to get everything as soon as he can! He wants to get baptized, get the Gift of the Holy Ghost, get the priesthood, and he even is planning on the going to the temple as soon as he is able to! We had an amazing lesson about temples yesterday where he told us about his ancestors and how he really wants to do there work.. he told a story about his grandpa dying which obviously about made me bust out into tears.. the spirit was so strong I can't even explain the feeling! Just a peace and a silence! Usually Pavel is such a talker but he was quite the whole time and just was on the edge of his chair ready to hear what was coming next! He said that he wants to drive out the Kiev next week and do baptisms for the dead!! He is just amazing! I have not met anyone on my entire mission as prepared as Pavel has been!
The past two days have really been interesting! Elder Borodin and I have been meeting with missionaries and pastors from other churches! The day before yesterday we met with a missionary from the Russian Orthodox Church... man was the frustrating! He has the Doctrine and Covenants and Book of Mormon. He had one question... how do you know that your answer that this is true was from God and not from the Devil... well is answer to that I was prompted to go the D&C 9 where Oliver Cowdery is being counciled on prayer... before we could even get through with one answer he had 100 more questions and would not give as an opportunity to answer any of them.. to say the least I was not very impressed because he strategy was not to teach by the spirit but to teach by proof and control...
Then yesterday we met with a pastor from another church (sorry I do not know how it translates in English) basically they believe in a very interesting way in the Gift of Tongue... this is the process... in groups one of them prays in Russian and all of the others around that person start jabbering.... and this is what they believe to be the Gift of Tongues. So here we have the main person pronouncing the prayers... and about fifty other people going crazy raising their hands up and chanting in "a different language" which they themselves don't understand. This meeting was focused on the Book of Mormon and Joseph. We very clearly and boldly preached our message and told them how to know whether it was true. Then the pastor started asking how many moms I had and asked if we knew that Joseph Smith was mentally ill. Haha... yet another interesting experience! Although... the choir sang very beautifully :)
The weather is finally getting warm here! It is time to take off the jacket and the let the white shirt and tie and name tag shine! People are definately going to know who we are without a mistake!! We have a great and a marvelous work that we are doing! It is great! I love you all! Thank you for the prayers and support! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Subject: Baptisms and No Baptisms... or maybe baptisms?
So first of all I have to tell you new news that I just found out because we have a rule in our mission that I was unaware of in the past (sorry mom and dad you are going to be working a little bit more because of this rule) I need to be writing friends through you, mom and dad, and receiving letters from my friends through you, mom and dad. So From now on I will be writing everything to you and then you can send it to my friends and that all of my wonderful friends who are amazing and supporting me are going to have to write back to my parents and then my parents will send it to me.. haha a long process, but oh well :)
Now... what do I mean by baptisms and no baptisms... well I got a really interesting call from Elder Forsyth last night. Sasha, the baptism that is supposed to happen this Saturday, is on the run again!!! Haha this is his fourth baptismal date! Although, this is the closest that he has ever gotten to it! So... Elder Forsyth started explaining to me the situation of how he came to General Conference last week (ya we only had General Conference last week) and then left without saying goodbye which was weird. Then the Elders were able to set up a time for the intereview and then he didn't come and they set up another time for him and then he didn't come and now they can't get a hold of him! So... basically this whole conversation I am sitting there and half of me is not surprised because hey this has happened to us two or three times already with him and the other half is just thinking what the DUCE is going on here! So this lead me to think that obviously the baptism is not going down like we wanted.. and then Elder Forsyth gets on facebook and starts reading Sasha's messages to his friends where he is talking about how his life is going to change on the 23rd of April and he is going to be a new person in the Lord... and his friends were asking questions and he was explaining how he was going to change... and these were recent messages. So... what do I think now? Baptism or No baptism? That is the question... and no one knows the answer except Sasha whom we cannot get in contact with!!
So on the other side of Russia in Voronesh we have some good news!! We are seeing a lot of miracles here! We have one baptismal date with an great investigators whose name is Pavel! ***** The latest news about Sasha! I just got a call from Elder Forsyth and I guess Sasha is going to get baptized!?!? He wrote to all of his friends yesterday on facebook that He is going to change because he is going to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! So.. now I guess that means that he is going to get baptized... we just still can't get a hold of him on the phone and he hasn't been interviewed but from what he says on facebook he is still on for the baptism!!***** Anyways, Pavel is awesome! To be honest when we set the baptismal date with him we were not planning on it.. we just want to talk about the difference between spiritual and mental understanding and the spirit was just so strong! He talked about his feelings when he meets with us and comes to church and the joy and peace that he feels with us and with the members! Before this moment all he talked about was how he understood everything and how it made sense, but he never explained his feelings. So when he started explaining his feelings we were able to testify of the Holy Ghost and then commit him to baptism and he accepted!!! But... that is not all... a few days ago he brought his friends to us who is also interested in learning about our church and this friend has a family!! Biggity biggity boo ya!! Our lesson went amazing with the friend, his name is Gyorgi or in englsih George, and we have a second lesson with him today! Pavel is preaching the gospel to all of his friends and wants us to meet two more of his friends! That is how the church grows right there! Nothing is better than friends inviting friends because there is instant support! We really had so many amazing lessons this past week with so many amazing people and the members here came and supported us and participated on the lessons... but I can't tell you all of the experiences that would take way too long!
So.. just a little more information if you didn't know this past week was NEW YEARS in Cambodia! Happy New Years for CAMBODIA! We have two less actives that Elder Borodin, my new companion, and I found from Cambodia and they invited us to a New Years Party this past week. It was hilarious! (To be honest KJ I felt like I was in Japan because everyone looked Japanese and they were all Karyoke-ing it up!) They had some interesting food and weird singing and dancing haha but it was awesome and we were able to meet a lot of awesome people there!
Well, a lot has been happening! I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
So first of all I have to tell you new news that I just found out because we have a rule in our mission that I was unaware of in the past (sorry mom and dad you are going to be working a little bit more because of this rule) I need to be writing friends through you, mom and dad, and receiving letters from my friends through you, mom and dad. So From now on I will be writing everything to you and then you can send it to my friends and that all of my wonderful friends who are amazing and supporting me are going to have to write back to my parents and then my parents will send it to me.. haha a long process, but oh well :)
Now... what do I mean by baptisms and no baptisms... well I got a really interesting call from Elder Forsyth last night. Sasha, the baptism that is supposed to happen this Saturday, is on the run again!!! Haha this is his fourth baptismal date! Although, this is the closest that he has ever gotten to it! So... Elder Forsyth started explaining to me the situation of how he came to General Conference last week (ya we only had General Conference last week) and then left without saying goodbye which was weird. Then the Elders were able to set up a time for the intereview and then he didn't come and they set up another time for him and then he didn't come and now they can't get a hold of him! So... basically this whole conversation I am sitting there and half of me is not surprised because hey this has happened to us two or three times already with him and the other half is just thinking what the DUCE is going on here! So this lead me to think that obviously the baptism is not going down like we wanted.. and then Elder Forsyth gets on facebook and starts reading Sasha's messages to his friends where he is talking about how his life is going to change on the 23rd of April and he is going to be a new person in the Lord... and his friends were asking questions and he was explaining how he was going to change... and these were recent messages. So... what do I think now? Baptism or No baptism? That is the question... and no one knows the answer except Sasha whom we cannot get in contact with!!
So on the other side of Russia in Voronesh we have some good news!! We are seeing a lot of miracles here! We have one baptismal date with an great investigators whose name is Pavel! ***** The latest news about Sasha! I just got a call from Elder Forsyth and I guess Sasha is going to get baptized!?!? He wrote to all of his friends yesterday on facebook that He is going to change because he is going to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! So.. now I guess that means that he is going to get baptized... we just still can't get a hold of him on the phone and he hasn't been interviewed but from what he says on facebook he is still on for the baptism!!***** Anyways, Pavel is awesome! To be honest when we set the baptismal date with him we were not planning on it.. we just want to talk about the difference between spiritual and mental understanding and the spirit was just so strong! He talked about his feelings when he meets with us and comes to church and the joy and peace that he feels with us and with the members! Before this moment all he talked about was how he understood everything and how it made sense, but he never explained his feelings. So when he started explaining his feelings we were able to testify of the Holy Ghost and then commit him to baptism and he accepted!!! But... that is not all... a few days ago he brought his friends to us who is also interested in learning about our church and this friend has a family!! Biggity biggity boo ya!! Our lesson went amazing with the friend, his name is Gyorgi or in englsih George, and we have a second lesson with him today! Pavel is preaching the gospel to all of his friends and wants us to meet two more of his friends! That is how the church grows right there! Nothing is better than friends inviting friends because there is instant support! We really had so many amazing lessons this past week with so many amazing people and the members here came and supported us and participated on the lessons... but I can't tell you all of the experiences that would take way too long!
So.. just a little more information if you didn't know this past week was NEW YEARS in Cambodia! Happy New Years for CAMBODIA! We have two less actives that Elder Borodin, my new companion, and I found from Cambodia and they invited us to a New Years Party this past week. It was hilarious! (To be honest KJ I felt like I was in Japan because everyone looked Japanese and they were all Karyoke-ing it up!) They had some interesting food and weird singing and dancing haha but it was awesome and we were able to meet a lot of awesome people there!
Well, a lot has been happening! I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Hello Hello!
Well! I made it to Voronesh! It is a very beautiful city and much warmer than it was in Yaroslavl! The branch building here is huge! It is probably bigger than any of the branch buildings in america! (I'll send pictures of it someday) It is an old Theater! They have a basketball and volleyball court inside, which is definately a first on my mission! So, that mean that every morning we wake up a little bit earlier (at 600 instead of 630) to go play ball! It is awesome! There are a lot of branch members here and it has been the first time in a long time where the missionaries haven't had to carry the conversation in priesthood and sunday school.. I just had to listen! Wow! But... to be honest.. I do still miss Yaroslavl. I am excited to be here and have to change to see and preform miracles here in this amazing city which already has a great foundation, but there are a lot of miracles going on right now in Yaroslavl and there I thrust in my sickle with all my might and I am excited to see the rewards that we will see from it...
Speaking of which... I got a great call from the Forsyths and the Elders in Yaroslavl a few days ago! One of the guys that we were teaching, Sergei (the guy who died twice but was brought back to life) has decided to be baptized! He also wants to talk to his family about it and we will see if they will join him! He is going to be baptized on the 23 of April and Alex is going to be baptized too and Grace is going to be baptized too! So, that means that maybe we will have 4 or 5 baptisms in Yaroslavl on the 23rd! Wow! President already gave me permission to go back and see them so that is awesome! Yarsoslavl has seen one baptism in the past year... and now in one day they might have 5! What a miracle!
Here in Voronesh we have three good investigators. Losha, Paval, and Tooral. I don't know too much about them yet since I have only been here for a week, but two of them might be baptized soon. As I get to know them all I will keep you updated. I know that Tooral is from Turkey, Losha is a recent converts brother, and Paval is a computer program designer.
My first day here there was a huge picnic for all of the priesthood holders and all of our investigators came. It was pretty fun, we ate hotdogs and played volleyball (kinda), and we played a game called Mafia that russians love to play. (I'll teach you someday it is a fun game) When we were leaving one of our investigators got his car stuck in the mud so we all got out and had to push him out of the mud. Haha it was pretty fun! I will send you pictures of it someday lol :)
My companion is awesome! He is going to be going home in about 5 weeks, so I will be getting a new companion soon. But, we are going to rock this city while he is still here! Miracles happen as we excercise our faith and work with all our heart might mind and soul and that is what I am planning on doing! We are both experienced elders now and we have no excuse! Things are going to be awesome!
I hope that you are all doing awesome! Remember who you are! I love you all!
Elder Weihing
Well! I made it to Voronesh! It is a very beautiful city and much warmer than it was in Yaroslavl! The branch building here is huge! It is probably bigger than any of the branch buildings in america! (I'll send pictures of it someday) It is an old Theater! They have a basketball and volleyball court inside, which is definately a first on my mission! So, that mean that every morning we wake up a little bit earlier (at 600 instead of 630) to go play ball! It is awesome! There are a lot of branch members here and it has been the first time in a long time where the missionaries haven't had to carry the conversation in priesthood and sunday school.. I just had to listen! Wow! But... to be honest.. I do still miss Yaroslavl. I am excited to be here and have to change to see and preform miracles here in this amazing city which already has a great foundation, but there are a lot of miracles going on right now in Yaroslavl and there I thrust in my sickle with all my might and I am excited to see the rewards that we will see from it...
Speaking of which... I got a great call from the Forsyths and the Elders in Yaroslavl a few days ago! One of the guys that we were teaching, Sergei (the guy who died twice but was brought back to life) has decided to be baptized! He also wants to talk to his family about it and we will see if they will join him! He is going to be baptized on the 23 of April and Alex is going to be baptized too and Grace is going to be baptized too! So, that means that maybe we will have 4 or 5 baptisms in Yaroslavl on the 23rd! Wow! President already gave me permission to go back and see them so that is awesome! Yarsoslavl has seen one baptism in the past year... and now in one day they might have 5! What a miracle!
Here in Voronesh we have three good investigators. Losha, Paval, and Tooral. I don't know too much about them yet since I have only been here for a week, but two of them might be baptized soon. As I get to know them all I will keep you updated. I know that Tooral is from Turkey, Losha is a recent converts brother, and Paval is a computer program designer.
My first day here there was a huge picnic for all of the priesthood holders and all of our investigators came. It was pretty fun, we ate hotdogs and played volleyball (kinda), and we played a game called Mafia that russians love to play. (I'll teach you someday it is a fun game) When we were leaving one of our investigators got his car stuck in the mud so we all got out and had to push him out of the mud. Haha it was pretty fun! I will send you pictures of it someday lol :)
My companion is awesome! He is going to be going home in about 5 weeks, so I will be getting a new companion soon. But, we are going to rock this city while he is still here! Miracles happen as we excercise our faith and work with all our heart might mind and soul and that is what I am planning on doing! We are both experienced elders now and we have no excuse! Things are going to be awesome!
I hope that you are all doing awesome! Remember who you are! I love you all!
Elder Weihing
Monday, March 21, 2011
Everyone! I hope everything is going great back home! Everything is great here! We have been traveling a lot like always, we went to Moscow and Tver and then this week we are headed back to Moscow for Zone Conference. The weather is just wierd.. I don't know whether it is winter or spring, but I did hear birds chirping this morning so that is never a bad sign!
Now our investigators! We have a lot of really great investigators still! We have Alex, Slava, Sergei, Sasha, Aleksei, and Dennis. Alex is going through a really rough time right now... Satan really does not want him to get baptized! Unfortunately, he is not going to make it for baptism on the 26th like we planned with him. He has been having a lot of money problems and that has brought a lot of stress for him. It happens everytime! Right after making a decision to get baptized something huge happens and people either take a step back or work right on through the obstacle! I have seen it every single time on my mission when we have made it to the point of baptism with someone... it has done nothing but strengthen my testimony of Satan and his existence. He does everything he can to distract these people or make them forget what has happened! It really is amazing to me!
Slava is doing good. We talked to him about answers and what he is expecting to get. He said that he believes in the Bible and if he reads and compares the Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and Book of Mormon to the Bible and finds nothing against the Bible then that means that they are scripture and our church is true. Haha he is so funny! But anyways, he has read the Book of Mormon twice and has thirty sections left in the Doctrine and Covenants and everything is going great so far! I know that he will get baptized in the end!
Sasha left the Catholic Church. He has been talking to us a lot lately about temptation, but for some reason he would never tell us exactly the problems and temptations that he is facing. Well, this past week we found a lot more! We found out that after he recieved an answer that the Church is true he left the Catholic Church and then everything went downhill! He got sick, his girlfriend got sick, his grandma didn't understand why he had to get rebaptized in our church... it all was just really confusing for him! So now he sees how hard Satan is working on him and he doesn't know what to do! Well, we are just trying to support him right now and pray for him. He will make it through!
Aleksei and Dennis are friends. We usually teach them english, but last time they came to the lesson and said that they didn't want to do english all they wanted was to talk about spiritual things! Well... we definitely weren't going to say no to that one! It was a great lesson! We talked about the Book of Mormon and Prophets and Prayer and basically a little bit of everything because they have so many questions! At the end of the lesson Dennis prayed for the first time in his entire life! He was so scared because he thought that he had to memorize the prayer, but it ended up great and the spirit was so strong! These people are amazing and we are seeing little miracles everyday as we work hard and are obedient!
Well my mission is great! I am going to try and work harder than ever to be more obedient and a more effective missionary! I know that God will bless me and bless this work. Yaroslavl is almost shrinking because so many members are planning on moving away so I only pray that we can replace these people with strong active leaders who have been prepared for this Gospel! I love you all! I am grateful for your love and support and remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Now our investigators! We have a lot of really great investigators still! We have Alex, Slava, Sergei, Sasha, Aleksei, and Dennis. Alex is going through a really rough time right now... Satan really does not want him to get baptized! Unfortunately, he is not going to make it for baptism on the 26th like we planned with him. He has been having a lot of money problems and that has brought a lot of stress for him. It happens everytime! Right after making a decision to get baptized something huge happens and people either take a step back or work right on through the obstacle! I have seen it every single time on my mission when we have made it to the point of baptism with someone... it has done nothing but strengthen my testimony of Satan and his existence. He does everything he can to distract these people or make them forget what has happened! It really is amazing to me!
Slava is doing good. We talked to him about answers and what he is expecting to get. He said that he believes in the Bible and if he reads and compares the Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and Book of Mormon to the Bible and finds nothing against the Bible then that means that they are scripture and our church is true. Haha he is so funny! But anyways, he has read the Book of Mormon twice and has thirty sections left in the Doctrine and Covenants and everything is going great so far! I know that he will get baptized in the end!
Sasha left the Catholic Church. He has been talking to us a lot lately about temptation, but for some reason he would never tell us exactly the problems and temptations that he is facing. Well, this past week we found a lot more! We found out that after he recieved an answer that the Church is true he left the Catholic Church and then everything went downhill! He got sick, his girlfriend got sick, his grandma didn't understand why he had to get rebaptized in our church... it all was just really confusing for him! So now he sees how hard Satan is working on him and he doesn't know what to do! Well, we are just trying to support him right now and pray for him. He will make it through!
Aleksei and Dennis are friends. We usually teach them english, but last time they came to the lesson and said that they didn't want to do english all they wanted was to talk about spiritual things! Well... we definitely weren't going to say no to that one! It was a great lesson! We talked about the Book of Mormon and Prophets and Prayer and basically a little bit of everything because they have so many questions! At the end of the lesson Dennis prayed for the first time in his entire life! He was so scared because he thought that he had to memorize the prayer, but it ended up great and the spirit was so strong! These people are amazing and we are seeing little miracles everyday as we work hard and are obedient!
Well my mission is great! I am going to try and work harder than ever to be more obedient and a more effective missionary! I know that God will bless me and bless this work. Yaroslavl is almost shrinking because so many members are planning on moving away so I only pray that we can replace these people with strong active leaders who have been prepared for this Gospel! I love you all! I am grateful for your love and support and remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Monday, March 14, 2011
Hello From Yaro
Well I am sorry to say but yet again I do not have time to write! Haha we are leaving town again today to travel to Moscow and then to Tver to work with other Elders and I have to have a few baptismal interviews with their investigators there. So.. we have a lot to do today and no time to do it! P-Day is supposed to be a time when you kinda rest and all of that stuff... but there is always too many things to do and too many places to go to rest.. but hey did I come on a mission to have P-Day or to work???
My Birthday was awesome this past week! The Forsyths made me breakfast and gave me a few little presents. One of the Sisters here, Sister Naluvkina, has been going crazy with oragami for some reason and she has been trying to teach me so on my birthday I opened a present from her of about 100 little oragami horses that I helped her fold earlier this week. Haha people give strange presents sometimes but it was hilarious! They also got me a stuffed camel, his name is Marcel. They said that it is because I love Kazakhstan! I had a great time! Other than that we had a normal day like everyday on the mission :) we contacted and taught people. The night of my birthday we happened to have a branch activity and that was pretty fun. It was an activity to celebrate Womens Day! They have a huge holiday here in Russia on March 8th for women. No one works and you always have to give presents and congradulate every woman you see!! It was a great opportunity for contacting :) good approach! "Happy Holiday! I wish you joy, good furtune, and good health! Have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon?" Haha it was awesome!
This week we also went to a play! It was really cool! The theater that we went to is the first theater that was every built in Russia! The play was.. interesting! Haha to be honest it was really hard to understand because it was kinda like a futuristic play and everyone had either high alien voices or deep machine voices! But, it was still awesome! My first real play in Russia!
The work is going great, despite all of the traveling that we are doing, but I am kinda frustrated because our investigators are either not getting answers to their prayers or they are not understanding the answers that they are getting! We now have three investigators who are amazing and are sincerely searching for truth. We have Slava, Alex, and Sergei. They are reading the Book of Mormon and some of them even the Doctrine and Covenants. They are praying. But, they are not getting or understanding what they are getting! We traveled to Ribinsk, which is a city where Slava lives, and had a great discussion with him! At the end of the lesson we all got down on our knees and Slava prayed about the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. The spirit was strong! But, he said that he didn't feel anything! The prayer was so sincere and now I am just confused on how he didn't feel it?? These people are all great! Everyone of them has been a miracle for me! What do we have to do to help them take that last step and show a little faith!? Alex looked at me the other day after one of our lessons and said, "Elder Weihing, getting an answer to my prayer about the Book of Mormon is the breaking point." Such sincerity! I am just amazing at these people and how they want to find out what God wants them to do! They are searching his will!
On Saturday we went down as a District and with one other member of the church. We found a gazibo type thing and we got around in a circle and everyone of us said a prayer for the city. It was a kind of like a blessing on the city to rebuke Satan and ask for divine help. The prayers were amazing! The Spirit was so strong! We even recorded the prayers so that the branch would have them on record! I know that God heard our prayers as we asked him to bless our investigators, bless this city, strengthen this branch, and inspire the missionaries and disciples of Christ who are searching for His chosen sons and daughters. God heard us and now we just have to do our part and show the faith! This is Gods work and he will bless us as we work hard! The field is white and now we just have to harvest it! We are the hunters and we needs to take advantage of every opportunity to share this eternal message with our borthers and sisters seeking!
The Work is going on! The Church is true! My mission is amazing and getting better everyday! Miracles are on their way and maybe even already here! I love you all and am grateful for your love and prayers on my behalf! Thank you for everything and remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Well I am sorry to say but yet again I do not have time to write! Haha we are leaving town again today to travel to Moscow and then to Tver to work with other Elders and I have to have a few baptismal interviews with their investigators there. So.. we have a lot to do today and no time to do it! P-Day is supposed to be a time when you kinda rest and all of that stuff... but there is always too many things to do and too many places to go to rest.. but hey did I come on a mission to have P-Day or to work???
My Birthday was awesome this past week! The Forsyths made me breakfast and gave me a few little presents. One of the Sisters here, Sister Naluvkina, has been going crazy with oragami for some reason and she has been trying to teach me so on my birthday I opened a present from her of about 100 little oragami horses that I helped her fold earlier this week. Haha people give strange presents sometimes but it was hilarious! They also got me a stuffed camel, his name is Marcel. They said that it is because I love Kazakhstan! I had a great time! Other than that we had a normal day like everyday on the mission :) we contacted and taught people. The night of my birthday we happened to have a branch activity and that was pretty fun. It was an activity to celebrate Womens Day! They have a huge holiday here in Russia on March 8th for women. No one works and you always have to give presents and congradulate every woman you see!! It was a great opportunity for contacting :) good approach! "Happy Holiday! I wish you joy, good furtune, and good health! Have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon?" Haha it was awesome!
This week we also went to a play! It was really cool! The theater that we went to is the first theater that was every built in Russia! The play was.. interesting! Haha to be honest it was really hard to understand because it was kinda like a futuristic play and everyone had either high alien voices or deep machine voices! But, it was still awesome! My first real play in Russia!
The work is going great, despite all of the traveling that we are doing, but I am kinda frustrated because our investigators are either not getting answers to their prayers or they are not understanding the answers that they are getting! We now have three investigators who are amazing and are sincerely searching for truth. We have Slava, Alex, and Sergei. They are reading the Book of Mormon and some of them even the Doctrine and Covenants. They are praying. But, they are not getting or understanding what they are getting! We traveled to Ribinsk, which is a city where Slava lives, and had a great discussion with him! At the end of the lesson we all got down on our knees and Slava prayed about the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. The spirit was strong! But, he said that he didn't feel anything! The prayer was so sincere and now I am just confused on how he didn't feel it?? These people are all great! Everyone of them has been a miracle for me! What do we have to do to help them take that last step and show a little faith!? Alex looked at me the other day after one of our lessons and said, "Elder Weihing, getting an answer to my prayer about the Book of Mormon is the breaking point." Such sincerity! I am just amazing at these people and how they want to find out what God wants them to do! They are searching his will!
On Saturday we went down as a District and with one other member of the church. We found a gazibo type thing and we got around in a circle and everyone of us said a prayer for the city. It was a kind of like a blessing on the city to rebuke Satan and ask for divine help. The prayers were amazing! The Spirit was so strong! We even recorded the prayers so that the branch would have them on record! I know that God heard our prayers as we asked him to bless our investigators, bless this city, strengthen this branch, and inspire the missionaries and disciples of Christ who are searching for His chosen sons and daughters. God heard us and now we just have to do our part and show the faith! This is Gods work and he will bless us as we work hard! The field is white and now we just have to harvest it! We are the hunters and we needs to take advantage of every opportunity to share this eternal message with our borthers and sisters seeking!
The Work is going on! The Church is true! My mission is amazing and getting better everyday! Miracles are on their way and maybe even already here! I love you all and am grateful for your love and prayers on my behalf! Thank you for everything and remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Monday, March 7, 2011
Hello everyone!
well I don't have a lot of time to write home this week because we have a lot of things going on right now! We are at the Forsyths right now and we have a less active member and an investigator over and we are getting together to make Plov! Plov is a dish with rice, onions, carrots, garlic, and meat! It is bomb! Maybe I will try and learn how to make it so that I can make it for you when I get home!
This week has been crazy! Last week after I got done writing home my companion started writing home and found out from his mom that the army called him and are calling him to go serve! In Russia and Ukraine they have to serve in the army and you get out of it by going to school. Well, my companion left school to come here and so they called him to the army! So now we are trying to figure out all of these problems so that we can keep him and not send him home! Pray for him and for the churchs lawyers! Well, then we went to Moscow, I went to Kiev with Elder Brown and Elder Waite, we were in Kiev for two hours and then we flew back, and then me and Elder Anisiforov headed out to Smolensk to work with them, and then we headed home and got home Thrusday! Crazy! A lot of traveling and no sleep! At first it was easy for me to sleep on trains, but for some reason it has gotten a lot harder which does not make sense to me!
We also deep cleaned the branch and our apartments to get ready for the blessing that we are going to be giving on the city this Saturday! It is giong to be awesome! I am so excited and know that missionary work is just going to explode after the blessing! This is such an amazing time to be here and be on a mission and be in this country and city! Things are not always easy and we get a lot of rejection, but :) you get used to the rejection and life and the work goes on!
Things are going great! The weather is getting better! the sun is coming out!
Welll, sorry but I have to run! I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing
well I don't have a lot of time to write home this week because we have a lot of things going on right now! We are at the Forsyths right now and we have a less active member and an investigator over and we are getting together to make Plov! Plov is a dish with rice, onions, carrots, garlic, and meat! It is bomb! Maybe I will try and learn how to make it so that I can make it for you when I get home!
This week has been crazy! Last week after I got done writing home my companion started writing home and found out from his mom that the army called him and are calling him to go serve! In Russia and Ukraine they have to serve in the army and you get out of it by going to school. Well, my companion left school to come here and so they called him to the army! So now we are trying to figure out all of these problems so that we can keep him and not send him home! Pray for him and for the churchs lawyers! Well, then we went to Moscow, I went to Kiev with Elder Brown and Elder Waite, we were in Kiev for two hours and then we flew back, and then me and Elder Anisiforov headed out to Smolensk to work with them, and then we headed home and got home Thrusday! Crazy! A lot of traveling and no sleep! At first it was easy for me to sleep on trains, but for some reason it has gotten a lot harder which does not make sense to me!
We also deep cleaned the branch and our apartments to get ready for the blessing that we are going to be giving on the city this Saturday! It is giong to be awesome! I am so excited and know that missionary work is just going to explode after the blessing! This is such an amazing time to be here and be on a mission and be in this country and city! Things are not always easy and we get a lot of rejection, but :) you get used to the rejection and life and the work goes on!
Things are going great! The weather is getting better! the sun is coming out!
Welll, sorry but I have to run! I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing
Monday, February 28, 2011
Hello Family and Friends!
This week has been great like always of course! The weather is picking up and I feel spring coming! This past week we saw two really amazing miracles!
The first one happened while I was in Moscow at a leadership training and my companion stayed behind to get some work done. My companion worked with with the Senior Couple Elder and Sister Forsyth. Well, a few weeks ago we found this guy named Sergei and we gave him a Book of Mormon and within a couple of weeks he read the whole thing. (This is the man who has died and been brought back to life two times) Well they were able to meet with him while I was gone. I guess the lesson just went amazing!! I guess Elder Forsyth told his conversion story and Elder Forsyth later explained to me that he could feel that Sergei was feeling the spirit very strong. Well two days ago we called him up to see how he was doing and he was so excited to hear from us! He could not thank us enough and just kept talking about how much he appreciated me and Elder Forsyth for opening up our souls to him and because of that he wants to open up his soul to us. He said that he could just feel how passionate we are about this work and this gospel and wants to know more about it! Anyways the guys is great! And better than that he has a few kids and a wife! So, we are really excited about him!
The second miracle of course happened again with Alex like always! He is amazing! This time we talked about the brother of Jared and getting answers to prayers. He has not yet received his answer about the Book of Mormon but continues to read and pray. Well we asked how he expects to get an answer. He said that he expects it through feelings and pure knowledge... he said that he expects something profound and unmistakable.We talked about the brother of Jared and how he had questions to the Lord as well but the Lord required a little bit more from him to get the answer, he wanted him to figure it out and then come to him with the solution. You could really see his body language change as he started to feel the spirit and connect with what we were talking about. So, we asked him if he would commit to being baptized on the 26th of March and go the Lord in prayer with a sincere heart willing to be baptized on that date and see what he says. Well, he agreed! So right now we have a baptism set for the 26th of March and we are pumped about it!!
This week is going to be another crazy week! I am going to Kiev tomorrow to renew my visa and then we will be in Smolensk on splits. We are working hard in our mission on a goal to baptize 31 by 31 and so it is crunch time in this last month! Aka I like to call this week MARCH MADNESS! This week is going to be "Crazy Hard Working Week" and we hare going to cut back all of our studies and eating time and even lessons to focus on finding new and chosen people out there! so it is going to be an awesome week full of miracles with contacting and tracting! Biggity biggity booyaa!!
Well the work is going great and we are reallly trying to flip this city which has seen only one baptism in the past year upside down!! I love you all and I am grateful for all that you do! Jesus loves you :) Remember who you are :) and the Church is true!
Elder Weihing
This week has been great like always of course! The weather is picking up and I feel spring coming! This past week we saw two really amazing miracles!
The first one happened while I was in Moscow at a leadership training and my companion stayed behind to get some work done. My companion worked with with the Senior Couple Elder and Sister Forsyth. Well, a few weeks ago we found this guy named Sergei and we gave him a Book of Mormon and within a couple of weeks he read the whole thing. (This is the man who has died and been brought back to life two times) Well they were able to meet with him while I was gone. I guess the lesson just went amazing!! I guess Elder Forsyth told his conversion story and Elder Forsyth later explained to me that he could feel that Sergei was feeling the spirit very strong. Well two days ago we called him up to see how he was doing and he was so excited to hear from us! He could not thank us enough and just kept talking about how much he appreciated me and Elder Forsyth for opening up our souls to him and because of that he wants to open up his soul to us. He said that he could just feel how passionate we are about this work and this gospel and wants to know more about it! Anyways the guys is great! And better than that he has a few kids and a wife! So, we are really excited about him!
The second miracle of course happened again with Alex like always! He is amazing! This time we talked about the brother of Jared and getting answers to prayers. He has not yet received his answer about the Book of Mormon but continues to read and pray. Well we asked how he expects to get an answer. He said that he expects it through feelings and pure knowledge... he said that he expects something profound and unmistakable.We talked about the brother of Jared and how he had questions to the Lord as well but the Lord required a little bit more from him to get the answer, he wanted him to figure it out and then come to him with the solution. You could really see his body language change as he started to feel the spirit and connect with what we were talking about. So, we asked him if he would commit to being baptized on the 26th of March and go the Lord in prayer with a sincere heart willing to be baptized on that date and see what he says. Well, he agreed! So right now we have a baptism set for the 26th of March and we are pumped about it!!
This week is going to be another crazy week! I am going to Kiev tomorrow to renew my visa and then we will be in Smolensk on splits. We are working hard in our mission on a goal to baptize 31 by 31 and so it is crunch time in this last month! Aka I like to call this week MARCH MADNESS! This week is going to be "Crazy Hard Working Week" and we hare going to cut back all of our studies and eating time and even lessons to focus on finding new and chosen people out there! so it is going to be an awesome week full of miracles with contacting and tracting! Biggity biggity booyaa!!
Well the work is going great and we are reallly trying to flip this city which has seen only one baptism in the past year upside down!! I love you all and I am grateful for all that you do! Jesus loves you :) Remember who you are :) and the Church is true!
Elder Weihing
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