Week 4: Hello from Texas!! 8/20/2018

Ladies and gentlemen I have made it to my mission!! I am super excited to get things going. It has been an overwhelming week with everything going and I am excited to take a step back a bit and try to get used to the missionary system!!! I am sure most of you had heard about my experience just traveling to Oklahoma. If you haven't, buckle up! It was an adventure to say the least. Got on the plane in SLC expecting to have a two and a half hour flight. Well that wasn't necessarily the case. While I was on the plane the guy next to me asked me to put my window down because he was watching a movie on his tablet. It kinda sucked because I like being able to look out of the plane and see where we are at. I did lift the window up a few times so I could see. One time I looked out the window and saw that we were just getting ready to land. We were really close to the land. I shut my window and waited for us to finally land. I was thinking to myself, huh... this is taking longer than expected. I looked out the window again and just saw clouds. It made me really confused because I thought we were just getting ready to touch down. Next thing I knew the pilots voice came over the intercom. He said due to weather issues in the OKC area, we will be flying over to the Dallas airport and wait for the storm to clear up. And that we did... We waited... and waited... and waited... For about 3 or 4 hours at least. We had many members come up to us and offer to buy us food. It was kinda like we were homeless and had no money. They were super nice to us tho. One of them called the AP's and told them about the situation. After waiting for a long period of time, the pilot finally decided to give it a go. The plane ride back into OKC was crazy!! There was lightning everywhere and it was the bumpiest plane ride I have ever been on in my life. The lady behind me was freaking out and screaming. It felt like we were all going to die. I thought it was exciting though. A huge adrenaline booster. But it freaked a lot of people out. A guy came to us after that experience and said "Thank you for your prayers." Well we did land safely and made it to the mission home at around midnight where the president and his wife were patiently waiting for us. It is gonna be a super cool story to tell someday!

Well like my subject says, I am in Texas in a very small town called Vernon!! Didn't think my first area out in the field would be in Texas but it is super awesome here. Despite the heat and the grouchy farmers, the people here are so nice and I look forward to getting to know them a little better. It is quite the small place here though!! Very small town and very hot!! My trainers name is Elder Kathriner from Oregon and he has been super awesome helping me become situated and adjusted to the life of a missionary. I relate to him a lot! We were able to get right to work and he has already taught me so much. He has a year of experience ahead of me!! Met some cool people who are interested in our church. I can't wait to be able to teach them all about it! It is really exciting. I was able to get my bike and thankfully you picked a good one dad because we will be biking A LOT!!! The very first day I got a flat tire and my comp had to teach me how to patch up a bike tire!! So now I know..haha!! Hydration is probably the most important thing out here though and I am making sure to drink lots of water while I am out!!

A few experiences that I have had with prayer this week:

Well, I have experienced many hardships as well this week! But all have led up to even better experiences!! For example, when I first got out here, I became very homesick. Living in an apartment had so much to do with that. Made me miss my house a little bit! Having to prepare food for myself as well has also made me miss home!! I prayed and prayed and asked Heavenly Father if he can help me cope with my homesickness!! Literally 20 minutes later, Elder Holt, one of the AP's called!! Just asked me how I was doing. I told him a little bit about me being a little homesick and he gave me some really good advice!! He said when he first got out to the field, he was the exact same way. He was really close to his family and it didn't make sense for him to leave them. But he told me to always remember that you are making them proud every minute that you are out here. And that there is so many people cheering you on and want you to keep going!! That was very uplifting and encouraging and it helped me know that Heavenly Father is looking out for me and is always helping me every way he can!!!

My first Sunday was awesome. I was able to meet a lot of cool members. There was about 30 of us there so it was kind of small. It is just called the Vernon branch because it is the only branch in the whole city. We have to drive an hour and a half to just get to the stake center. Of course, me being fresh off the plane, I was assigned to speak for yesterdays sacrament meeting and I had about a 5 minute talk prepared. Well guess what!! Two speakers went up before me and when it was my turn I had 25 MINUTES I had to fill. During the intermediate hymn I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help me fill in that really long space. I did it!! I was able to use all that time. I found out ways to make your talk super long, just talk about your family. That is what I did as I introduced myself to the people in my branch. It was a cool experience though because I remember back at home it took me a month to prepare for my 15 minute farewell talk. It was cool that I was able to speak for 25 minutes on the spot. The spirit definitely helped out with that.

I am so excited for the awesome experiences I am yet to make.

Love y'all and PLEASE BE SAFE!!!!

Elder Weese