Hi Suzanne,
I just wanted to write and tell you how much we love Elder Weihing and how hard it is to let him go. He has found a place in our hearts and has made these last six months the best of our mission. He is a PERFECT missionary. I have never heard him criticize anyone, especially his companions, and he has had some hard ones. He has more patience and more compassion than any missionary we have had here and he is a wonderful zone leader. He is always positive and encouraging and lifts everyone up. He is a gentle but firm leader and has gained respect from the other missionaries as well as everyone he comes in contact with. He has been a great asset to our Branch, our District and the Moscow West Mission. We love him and we will miss him greatly but he absolutely returns with honor. Being the mother of a missionary, I know how excited you are to have him back home with you. I'm a little jealous and I look forward to the day when we are reunited with our family and our missionary son, but our lives will be forever blessed having known your son. He will be a wonderful husband, father and great Church Leader one day and we hope to be able to meet you and see him again when we get home. Thank you for raising a wonderful son and sacrificing him for two years to spread this Gospel to the people in Russia. Many lives have been touched and changed because of him. Enjoy your homecoming! And give him a great big hug and kiss for me when you see him.
Sincerely,
Sister Frost
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Homecoming
WE ARE SO EXCITED ELDER WEIHING IS COMING HOME SOON!
Elder Kenneth Weihing will be speaking the 13th of November at 9:00 a.m. Same building as his farewell. We will also have a Brunch following. Please call me if you have any questions! Kam 801-842-3693
Elder Kenneth Weihing will be speaking the 13th of November at 9:00 a.m. Same building as his farewell. We will also have a Brunch following. Please call me if you have any questions! Kam 801-842-3693
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Subject: Baptism!
Wow the baptism was crazy! So the first councilor in the branch presidency always takes care of the baptismal font. It takes about three hours to fill up and also you have to heat it up a certain way. so on Saturday morning we came to the church and went down to make sure that he filled it up and of course.... it was empty! Talk about there always being something that goes wrong during a baptism! so I called the first councilor and he realized that actually he had filled it up but had just forgotten to turn off the drain so during the night the whole font was drained! So, we had two options, postpone the baptism until Sunday morning, or start getting it filled up and start dumping buckets of water from the sink in there in hopes that we can start the baptism as much on time as possible. The only problem was that if you chose the second one then the water would not be warm, it would be freezing. So, after talking to the people who were getting baptized that decided that they couldn't wait until sunday and wanted to be baptized right now! So... we started the process of filling the font! :) in the end the baptism was only postponed 30 minutes! The baptism was so amazing! 4 baptisms in one day! Sergei (the church guard who got baptized) was so happy! His whole family was there and they of course were just bawling! His wife got up and talked about how in here Patriarchal Blessing which she got many years ago it said that her husband and grandchildren would join in the church and at that point it seemed completely impossible. But, now the day has finally come! She was so happy! there was such an amazing spirit there and a great support from the members who have also been waiting impatiently for him to get baptized!Also this last week I went to my first Russian Ballet! We went and saw Romeo and Juliet! Hmmm... what do I say about this? It was pretty cool and I am glad that I was able to have that experience. But, lets just say that I don't have any plans in the near future to go to a ballet. Haha, but it was cool to have that experience! We also just got back this morning from Moscow because I had Zone Leaders Council. While we were there we went and saw Lenin's body. At Read Square you can go see it. Haha Elder Jones was way excited! But, it really didn't turn out that cool becuase all he could say at the end was... "wow Lenin is short" That was another cool experience though.Right now the AP's are here and one of the AP's is a profession Russian Basketball Player so we went and played some ball in the church today! It was awesome! He is a baller for sure! We had some fun! Well, it is starting to get cold here.. I think it is going to be snowing soon! I love you all! Remember who you are!Elder Weihing :)
Wow the baptism was crazy! So the first councilor in the branch presidency always takes care of the baptismal font. It takes about three hours to fill up and also you have to heat it up a certain way. so on Saturday morning we came to the church and went down to make sure that he filled it up and of course.... it was empty! Talk about there always being something that goes wrong during a baptism! so I called the first councilor and he realized that actually he had filled it up but had just forgotten to turn off the drain so during the night the whole font was drained! So, we had two options, postpone the baptism until Sunday morning, or start getting it filled up and start dumping buckets of water from the sink in there in hopes that we can start the baptism as much on time as possible. The only problem was that if you chose the second one then the water would not be warm, it would be freezing. So, after talking to the people who were getting baptized that decided that they couldn't wait until sunday and wanted to be baptized right now! So... we started the process of filling the font! :) in the end the baptism was only postponed 30 minutes! The baptism was so amazing! 4 baptisms in one day! Sergei (the church guard who got baptized) was so happy! His whole family was there and they of course were just bawling! His wife got up and talked about how in here Patriarchal Blessing which she got many years ago it said that her husband and grandchildren would join in the church and at that point it seemed completely impossible. But, now the day has finally come! She was so happy! there was such an amazing spirit there and a great support from the members who have also been waiting impatiently for him to get baptized!Also this last week I went to my first Russian Ballet! We went and saw Romeo and Juliet! Hmmm... what do I say about this? It was pretty cool and I am glad that I was able to have that experience. But, lets just say that I don't have any plans in the near future to go to a ballet. Haha, but it was cool to have that experience! We also just got back this morning from Moscow because I had Zone Leaders Council. While we were there we went and saw Lenin's body. At Read Square you can go see it. Haha Elder Jones was way excited! But, it really didn't turn out that cool becuase all he could say at the end was... "wow Lenin is short" That was another cool experience though.Right now the AP's are here and one of the AP's is a profession Russian Basketball Player so we went and played some ball in the church today! It was awesome! He is a baller for sure! We had some fun! Well, it is starting to get cold here.. I think it is going to be snowing soon! I love you all! Remember who you are!Elder Weihing :)
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Subject: Baptisms and Conference!
Well we finally got to watch General Conference this last Sunday! It was awesome! The talk by Callister was for every person investigating the Church around the world! Amazing! It was a great end to Consecration week. We work hard and it was awesome! We also had a fast this past week for Sergei to help him quite smoking. (this is the guard at the church who reminds me of grandpa) At the end of the fast we gave him a blessing. He is doing great! His wife is already a member and he is already talking about going to the temple with her to get sealed and about his grandchildren and how we need to start teaching them! I really don't know what has happened with him... the past elders who have taught him talked about how he is not repentant and is not sincere but while I have been teaching him I have seen nothing but humility and sincerity! He is great and I am so excited for the baptism this Saturday! There is going to be four baptisms! Today I have to go do all of the interviews for all of them so I am really excited! It is going to be a huge blessing for the branch here!We also went this week to Lipetsk again to work with the Elders there. It was great to see Anisiforov again. He is having a kind of hard time right now but he is some great ideas to explode the work in that city!Well, that is basically all of the really new news! Remember who you are and we will hear from you next week! :)Elder Weihing
Well we finally got to watch General Conference this last Sunday! It was awesome! The talk by Callister was for every person investigating the Church around the world! Amazing! It was a great end to Consecration week. We work hard and it was awesome! We also had a fast this past week for Sergei to help him quite smoking. (this is the guard at the church who reminds me of grandpa) At the end of the fast we gave him a blessing. He is doing great! His wife is already a member and he is already talking about going to the temple with her to get sealed and about his grandchildren and how we need to start teaching them! I really don't know what has happened with him... the past elders who have taught him talked about how he is not repentant and is not sincere but while I have been teaching him I have seen nothing but humility and sincerity! He is great and I am so excited for the baptism this Saturday! There is going to be four baptisms! Today I have to go do all of the interviews for all of them so I am really excited! It is going to be a huge blessing for the branch here!We also went this week to Lipetsk again to work with the Elders there. It was great to see Anisiforov again. He is having a kind of hard time right now but he is some great ideas to explode the work in that city!Well, that is basically all of the really new news! Remember who you are and we will hear from you next week! :)Elder Weihing
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Subject: CONSECRATION WEEK!
What a crazy week! This week we have been doing a thing called consecration week where we do less study and less teaching and more finding and talking! IT HAS BEEN AWESOME! We have been on the streets 5-6 hours a day just running around talking to everyone! I LOVE IT! We have met some amazing people! Another thing that we have been focusing on is tracting. Tracting is when you knock on doors aka in Russian when you go to apartment buildings and try and get in and then just tract an entire staircase of doors. Well, in our mission we really don't do much of it except for in the winter when it is FREEZING! Well guess what? Winter is coming! So, we are getting back into tracting mode! Haha Elder Jones and I have been having a lot of fun with it!This past week I had one of the more amazing experiences of my mission. In Voronezh the church building is an old theater and we have guards in the front that are always here to let people in and out. Well, out of the three guards only one is a member. The other two are married to members. Obviously the other two guards who are not members know that the church is true, how could you not being in the church all day everyday, but they are having problems taking the last step. They have been what we like to call "eternal investigators". Usually the Elders who have the other area in Voronezh teach them but a few months ago the Branch President took Elder Eliason and I to one of the guards home and we had a lesson there. This guard has not been baptized only because he cannot quit smoking. Well, at the lesson the Branch President shared grandpa's favorite scripture and all of the sudden it hit me... you have to teach him because you can help him. So, that night I called the other Elders and asked if we could teach him and of course they agreed. Well, Elder Eliason and I made a plan to teach him and everytime we tried to teach him he was busy and couldn't beause it was summer and he was always at his dacha with his wife. Time went on and to be honest I forgot about the feelings I had knowing that I had to teach him. Well, one day we were on splits with the Branch President again and we were talking about one of our investigators and just randomly the Branch President looked at me and said, "Elder Weihing I know that you only have a short time left but I feel like you can help Sergei (the guard) and get him baptized before you leave." I knew he was right and I knew exactly what I needed to talk to him about though I was scared and didn't know how he would react. Well, finally this week we were able to meet with him and the Branch President was there with us. Well, I started out by showing him a picture of grandpa and talking about what type of person grandpa was. I told him that grandpa is my best friend and that I was named after him and because of that I am the favorite grandchild. I told him how grandpa was a hard worker and was very very stubborn, but he loved his family and would do anything for them. I explained how this guard reminds me of grandpa because he is the exact same type of guy. I also explained that early on in life he had a problem with smoking and told him how he quit smoking. To be honest the guard was very excited and really wanted to know how. I told him want grandpa had told me, that grandpa made the decision that he didn't want to smoke anymore and then he got a priesthood blessing to help him quit and after that he never smoked again. All the guard could say is, "Why haven't you told me this before!?" So, we set a baptismal date with him on the 15th of October and we are fasting for him and giving him a blessing on Sunday. Grandpa is continuing to help me all the way to the very end! WHAT A MIRACLE!I know that the Church is true and I know that we have a sacred authority entrusted to us by the Lord. This Authority blesses the lives of those people whom we love. This authority is going to bless this mans life and his family forever. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Elder Weihing :)
What a crazy week! This week we have been doing a thing called consecration week where we do less study and less teaching and more finding and talking! IT HAS BEEN AWESOME! We have been on the streets 5-6 hours a day just running around talking to everyone! I LOVE IT! We have met some amazing people! Another thing that we have been focusing on is tracting. Tracting is when you knock on doors aka in Russian when you go to apartment buildings and try and get in and then just tract an entire staircase of doors. Well, in our mission we really don't do much of it except for in the winter when it is FREEZING! Well guess what? Winter is coming! So, we are getting back into tracting mode! Haha Elder Jones and I have been having a lot of fun with it!This past week I had one of the more amazing experiences of my mission. In Voronezh the church building is an old theater and we have guards in the front that are always here to let people in and out. Well, out of the three guards only one is a member. The other two are married to members. Obviously the other two guards who are not members know that the church is true, how could you not being in the church all day everyday, but they are having problems taking the last step. They have been what we like to call "eternal investigators". Usually the Elders who have the other area in Voronezh teach them but a few months ago the Branch President took Elder Eliason and I to one of the guards home and we had a lesson there. This guard has not been baptized only because he cannot quit smoking. Well, at the lesson the Branch President shared grandpa's favorite scripture and all of the sudden it hit me... you have to teach him because you can help him. So, that night I called the other Elders and asked if we could teach him and of course they agreed. Well, Elder Eliason and I made a plan to teach him and everytime we tried to teach him he was busy and couldn't beause it was summer and he was always at his dacha with his wife. Time went on and to be honest I forgot about the feelings I had knowing that I had to teach him. Well, one day we were on splits with the Branch President again and we were talking about one of our investigators and just randomly the Branch President looked at me and said, "Elder Weihing I know that you only have a short time left but I feel like you can help Sergei (the guard) and get him baptized before you leave." I knew he was right and I knew exactly what I needed to talk to him about though I was scared and didn't know how he would react. Well, finally this week we were able to meet with him and the Branch President was there with us. Well, I started out by showing him a picture of grandpa and talking about what type of person grandpa was. I told him that grandpa is my best friend and that I was named after him and because of that I am the favorite grandchild. I told him how grandpa was a hard worker and was very very stubborn, but he loved his family and would do anything for them. I explained how this guard reminds me of grandpa because he is the exact same type of guy. I also explained that early on in life he had a problem with smoking and told him how he quit smoking. To be honest the guard was very excited and really wanted to know how. I told him want grandpa had told me, that grandpa made the decision that he didn't want to smoke anymore and then he got a priesthood blessing to help him quit and after that he never smoked again. All the guard could say is, "Why haven't you told me this before!?" So, we set a baptismal date with him on the 15th of October and we are fasting for him and giving him a blessing on Sunday. Grandpa is continuing to help me all the way to the very end! WHAT A MIRACLE!I know that the Church is true and I know that we have a sacred authority entrusted to us by the Lord. This Authority blesses the lives of those people whom we love. This authority is going to bless this mans life and his family forever. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Elder Weihing :)
Letter from Sis. Wolley
Sept. 22, 2011
Just a little note to let you know that your son is training - again.I think he has trained more than any other missionary we've had. He ishardworking, effective, and sensitive to a new elder's needs. Weappreciate his leadership.
-Sister Woolley
Just a little note to let you know that your son is training - again.I think he has trained more than any other missionary we've had. He ishardworking, effective, and sensitive to a new elder's needs. Weappreciate his leadership.
-Sister Woolley
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Subject: Baptisms and almost baptismal dates!
Another week full of fun and miraculous missionary work!
My new comp is great! Haha it is a lot of fun to help him get used to the "life of a missionary". Full of waking up at 6 30, studying, planning, and working working and working! We are always moving around and never have time to stop! It is a great life and at the end of the day it is great to realize how many things you have gotten done in a single day! That would have never had the same effect on me at the end of an ordinary back home! Being with a greenie always reminds me of how the habbits that I now have have truly become a way of life for me and I almost don't remember what life was like without them. They are just so simple such as setting goals, but for a new missionary it is completely foreign. It makes me wonder what new things I will have to get used to when I get home? Do they a Return Missionary Training Center? THEY NEED ONE! They should teach us how to live a normal life and how to talk to and flirt with girls! Haha
Anyways this past week we had Voronezh days! It was great! They had a Jet Airplane show for the city and it was awesome! There was a lot of drunk people out that day so we had to be expecially careful and when we tried to go out and work the Senior told us to go back home and change into normal clothes because it was to dangerous. Kinda a weird first day for my new comp but I guess he better get used to weird days because missons are full of them! For example, two days ago I was just goin about the normal day missionary work stuff and I got a call that said that I have to leave and come a neighboring city to work with one Elder because his comp is going on a visa trip. haha :) you really learn how to drop everything you are doing and have planned and just go with the flow an a mission! So right now I am in another city working with the other elder. we are having a great time exploding his area up!!!
We are still seeing miracles in Voronezh! I will tell you one experience that I had this past week. so I don't know if you all remember Gary, but he is from Armenia but is basically russian. He is a boxer. He has a family of three kids and a wife. He is awesome and has such knowledge of the Gospel! Bascially he has taken any situation in life and asked himself the quesiton what would Christ do? AMAZING! So we gave him a Book of Mormon like fourt or five months ago and we have been teaching him and he has been to church a lot. Well the past few weeks he has disappeared because of work problems and family problems. Well he finally has returned! He has read the entire Book of Mormon, the Restored Truth, and Gospel Principles! He has a million questions and wants to more deeply understand our church and doctrine. Haha basically at every lesson he gets so deep and deep and just wants more... so that is what he started doing this last lesson but I cut him off and I just said... " Gary I have one question for you. You have read and studied the Book of Mormon. Do you believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God?" Well, his reaction was hilarious because it was so obvious... he just sat there and looked down and was just so silent for a minute or so and then started talking about something else and so I just stopped him and asked the same question again. "Gary do you believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God?" He sat there again for a minute and then just blurted out. "Yes of course! A man could not have made this up and come up with these names and all of these events!" Haha then I just opened to the introduction to the book of Mormon where it talks about if the book of Mormon is true then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is a prophet, and The Church is true! He read it and didn't know what to say. I invited him to get baptized on my last Saturday before I leave and he said that he will pray about it! I know that he will get an answer! He has been searching and has found the truth! He can't deny that he has a testimony!
A mission is awesome! October Liahona is all about the Book of Mormon. You should all take a copy and read it it is amazing! Well I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Another week full of fun and miraculous missionary work!
My new comp is great! Haha it is a lot of fun to help him get used to the "life of a missionary". Full of waking up at 6 30, studying, planning, and working working and working! We are always moving around and never have time to stop! It is a great life and at the end of the day it is great to realize how many things you have gotten done in a single day! That would have never had the same effect on me at the end of an ordinary back home! Being with a greenie always reminds me of how the habbits that I now have have truly become a way of life for me and I almost don't remember what life was like without them. They are just so simple such as setting goals, but for a new missionary it is completely foreign. It makes me wonder what new things I will have to get used to when I get home? Do they a Return Missionary Training Center? THEY NEED ONE! They should teach us how to live a normal life and how to talk to and flirt with girls! Haha
Anyways this past week we had Voronezh days! It was great! They had a Jet Airplane show for the city and it was awesome! There was a lot of drunk people out that day so we had to be expecially careful and when we tried to go out and work the Senior told us to go back home and change into normal clothes because it was to dangerous. Kinda a weird first day for my new comp but I guess he better get used to weird days because missons are full of them! For example, two days ago I was just goin about the normal day missionary work stuff and I got a call that said that I have to leave and come a neighboring city to work with one Elder because his comp is going on a visa trip. haha :) you really learn how to drop everything you are doing and have planned and just go with the flow an a mission! So right now I am in another city working with the other elder. we are having a great time exploding his area up!!!
We are still seeing miracles in Voronezh! I will tell you one experience that I had this past week. so I don't know if you all remember Gary, but he is from Armenia but is basically russian. He is a boxer. He has a family of three kids and a wife. He is awesome and has such knowledge of the Gospel! Bascially he has taken any situation in life and asked himself the quesiton what would Christ do? AMAZING! So we gave him a Book of Mormon like fourt or five months ago and we have been teaching him and he has been to church a lot. Well the past few weeks he has disappeared because of work problems and family problems. Well he finally has returned! He has read the entire Book of Mormon, the Restored Truth, and Gospel Principles! He has a million questions and wants to more deeply understand our church and doctrine. Haha basically at every lesson he gets so deep and deep and just wants more... so that is what he started doing this last lesson but I cut him off and I just said... " Gary I have one question for you. You have read and studied the Book of Mormon. Do you believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God?" Well, his reaction was hilarious because it was so obvious... he just sat there and looked down and was just so silent for a minute or so and then started talking about something else and so I just stopped him and asked the same question again. "Gary do you believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God?" He sat there again for a minute and then just blurted out. "Yes of course! A man could not have made this up and come up with these names and all of these events!" Haha then I just opened to the introduction to the book of Mormon where it talks about if the book of Mormon is true then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is a prophet, and The Church is true! He read it and didn't know what to say. I invited him to get baptized on my last Saturday before I leave and he said that he will pray about it! I know that he will get an answer! He has been searching and has found the truth! He can't deny that he has a testimony!
A mission is awesome! October Liahona is all about the Book of Mormon. You should all take a copy and read it it is amazing! Well I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
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