Week 18: Thanksgiving got me feeling sick!! 11/26/2018

Hey everyone!! What's going on? It was soooo good to hear about y'all's thanksgiving day back home because mine wasn't too good. I was super sick!!!! I think I came down with the flu which is weird because I had a flu shot just a month ago. That's what most of the members told me it looks like I had!! I felt sick at the start of last week and on Thanksgiving day it hit me like a dump truck!! I had to cancel almost all of the dinner appointments I had which was hard because I was sooo pumped for this day. At least I have another Thanksgiving next year. Hopefully it won't bring forth the same results. The only thing I can remember about this week was me being bed ridden for the most part of it. I went on a few exchanges sooo my poor comp could get out of the house. it was by far the hardest week on my mission. Getting sick out here is not fun!!

Despite the fact of me being sick and not a lot happening this week because of that, I am super optimistic about what is to come these next few weeks and in the month of December. We have to people preparing for baptism in that month. We have a 9 year old girl named Ashlynn who is on date for the 1st and a 14 year old boy who hasn't picked a specific date yet, but he knows December is the month for his baptism. It is super exciting. This week, I am looking forward to getting back in the loop after being benched these last few days! I am soooo ready to get back to work!! 

Everything else is going good in my area!! Comp and I are getting along and I am becoming more acquainted to this larger ward!! I gave a talk yesterday in church as well for how we can all light the world. I shared that the best way to share our light with others and increasingly brighten it is to develop Christlike attributes!! When we develop those, people will notice what makes us different and they would want the same happiness we have. Even the smallest light possible can eliminate any sort of darkness that comes along our way!! I hope everything is going awesome with y'all and I hope you guys have another awesome week!!!

Love y'all,

Elder Weese

1) Thanksgiving morning

2) Elder Hammond and Elder Weese Thanksgiving dinner with the Stephani Family

3) Zone breakfast!

4) Mall villains

Week 17: Happy Thanksgiving Week!!!!! 11/19/2018

Hello again everybody!! How you all doing this fine Monday morning?? What is life like in good ol' Utah?? It was sooo good to hear from those who emailed me this week!!! I hope the rest of you all are doing great!! Well, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving this week!! I hope you guys are too. I legitimately have FOUR families assigned to feed us that day. Me and Elder Hammond definitely need to go on a two day fast before that day comes because I don't know how it is humanly possible to consume that much food!! I am sooo excited for that day tho!! I love hanging out with the members!! I have had more opportunities to visit with members and they are sooo helpful to us in the work. They feel that it is an obligation to be involved with missionary work because being members of the church, the Lord expects more out of us to seek his lost sheep!! To minister to those around us especially the ones who are going through the hardest of times as of late.

So just a bit about this week!! It was AWESOME!!!!!! Last p-day I got to hang out at the mall with a lot of missionaries!! I love going to the mall especially at this time of year when everything is beginning to be on sale. We might be doing the same today!!! I am still trying to learn how to manage my money because I definitely don't want to be broke when I return home!! Haha!!! We also got to help out with the special olympics this week which was a really cool experience. It is awesome to see the smile on those kids faces when they are having fun. Just picture a ton of volleyball games going on with missionaries EVERYWHERE officiating them!! Most importantly cheering them on!! Meet some really cool people that day and definitely put things in perspective. Everyone is equal in the eyes of God and he loves all of his children just the same!!! Just imagine how happy it makes him when we are always encouraging and uplifting others!! When his children are happy, then he is happy!! We also had zone conference this past Friday which was awesome. It was my third one!! President trained on how we can eliminate anti-mormon arguments. The most reliable source and the source that has been attacked most of all is the Book of Mormon. These people are really convinced that Joseph Smith plagiarized the Book of Mormon from other manuscripts. We were able to get those manuscripts and it is obvious that Joseph Smith translated it through the gift and the power of God!! How can Joseph come up with these divine doctrines?? I don't know how it's possible!!! When you also regard the power as you read it. People are too afraid to give it a chance. Too entitled to their opinions!!

Well, didn't get a lot of people at church yesterday probably because everyone has started off their vacation for Thanksgiving early!! It was a really good Sunday nonetheless!! I got to hang out with the young men in their quorom activity. Got me reminiscing about the times when I was in that position. I miss those days!!! All you young people back home, take advantage of where you are at right now!! I would give anything to go back to those times because it was soooo much easier back then!! You all don't know stress until you serve a mission!! But stress is part of it and it is so rewarding to see the fruit of your labors as you work hard!! Well, I love you all and I hope this Thanksgiving you all can remember who and what you are thankful for. It is not just about the turkey and pie although they are all good. Just count your blessings that day and I promise you guys it will be the best Thanksgiving ever!!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Zone Conference 
2) Chillin like a villain!!

3) Downtown!!

4) B-DUBS!!!! 

5) Me and my Mercedes:)
6) Fly like an eagle!!!!!!

Week 16: First week in Tulsa..snow, bike rack, gas leak & more!! 11/12/2018

Hello ladies and gents!!! What is cracking on the home front??? It has been a really awesome, busy, week for me!! It has been quite an adjustment moving from small town Vernon to the big city of Tulsa. Oh, and it is currently snowing right now and we almost weren't allowed to leave the apartment because of the icy roads!! Sooooo first and foremost, my new companion is really cool!! He is soooooo funny and has a huge sense of humor and everyone here in Tulsa seems to love him soooo much!! He is from Sacramento California and has been on his mission for about 18 months! Which is a crazy long time!!!! One day, we saw an airplane in the sky and he asked me "how far away is that airplane?". Me, not knowing where he was going with this, told him a couple thousand feet.  He then jokingly said that it is way closer to me than it must seem to you! Haha! Very funny...... 

So, it was a pretty crazy week this week, first of course, we had transfers. We car pooled with a few other Elders up to Tulsa after transfers happened so we had a ton of bikes on our bike rack!! We get to Tulsa after dark and an Elder named Elder Wildman broke the key to the bike rack. So me and Elder Hammond have been driving around the car with 3 bikes strapped to the back of it!!! We called the mission office to see what we could do and they told us not to cut the chord that had all the bikes attached to it because it would be a pretty expensive replacement. So we just had to work with it!!! We also were running late to a dinner appointment so we couldn't do anything about the situation. The next day, we found out that there was a gas leak in our apartment due to the smell of propane so we had to call the fire department and three fire trucks showed up to our house!! No biggy, our apartment could have exploded this week!! Haha!! That problem was pretty well taken care of!! So no worries. We also had to take our car to a shop because we ran over a nail so we had to go and get our tire fixed!!! The next day after that. We were driving around with all the bikes on the back and guess what happened!! THE BIKE RACK FELL OFF while we were driving!!! Into the middle of on coming traffic. We had to call a member who had a truck to come pick up the bike rack for us. Thankfully, there was no damage done to our bikes. After that, we had a very awkward dinner appointment with an inactive couple. The food wasn't too good and it was my first time having to troop through a rough dinner!!! Plus, it was in a very sketchy apartment complex, probably the scariest one in town. We thought we were gonna get mugged by these 2 so called "security guards" who made us talk with them!! Pretty scary.........

Well, with all hardships that happened to us this week!! We were able to see so many miracles happened. We have constantly recieved refferals and have plenty of teaching opportunities!!! We get feed by the members every night so don't ever worry about me getting hungry!! Our ward is also in the richer part of town so we get to go in some awesome houses and meet some really successful people!!! We have a few kids on date for baptism and had 4 investigators at church. I can't wait to get to know these people even more and to help them grow and progress in the Gospel. They seem really solid!! I hope all is well with you all back home!! Keep doing great things. I appreciate your guys support!! Love Yall!!!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Goodbye Elder K!!

2) Me and Elder Hammond on this snowy day

3) Our apartment almost exploded

4) The moment after the bike rack fell off!!

Week 15: I'VE BEEN TRANSFERRED!! 11/5/2018

What's up everybody?? Man it has been a really busy week/weekend and I have a lot of news for you all!!! To start off, I would like to begin with what happened last night which was.... transfer calls!! Well guys, it is with a great deal of sadness and also excitement that I will be leaving the Vernon area and heading all the way across the mission to serve in Tulsa!! Let me tell ya, I was in complete astonishment when I heard the news!! I though for sure that I would be staying here for at least one more transfer, and that my comp will be heading out, but the exact opposite happened!! I am moving from a small town the the big city which will take some time adjusting too. My current comp, Elder Kathriner, will be staying here in Vernon for another transfer and my new companion is Elder Hammond who I have already met once before. In fact, He and Elder Kathriner were companions right before I got to Vernon. So I guess, I served as his replacement in the Vernon area. Elder Kathriner told me sooo much about how much he loved serving with Elder Hammond and how much of a good missionary he is!! I can't wait to get to work with him!! I will be leaving Wednesday so I will be packin, packin, packin these next few days!!!

With that being said, I am so thankful for the time and oppurtunity I had to serve in Vernon Texas. I couldn't have asked for a better area to start of my mission. These next few days are going to consist of many heart felt goodbyes. I think of the members and investigators I will be leaving behind and it just makes me super sad!! I came here 12 weeks ago as a nervous, overwhelmed, brand new missionary and these guys took me in as if I were apart of their family. It's going to be hard to leave but like I said, I am super excited for this new oppurtunity I have!!!

Surprisingly, that wasn't all that happened this week!! Halloween up in Wichita Falls was super fun!! I got to go to the Academy sports outlet where I bought me a new tazer. The reasoning behind that purchase was to serve as dog repellent!!! Dogs out here hate bikers and I have ran into so many situations where they have even tried to bite at me as I am biking along!! Not anymore dogs!! You're gonna get it!! Haha!! We also went to the mall which was REALLY weird because it was my first time going there as a missionary. I felt soooo out of place, but it was a good time though!!! After that, we went to a members house and pretty much chilled there for the rest of the night. We had some dinner and played some awesome games!!! Halloween was sooo much fun! Unfortunatley, No trick or treating for us though! Haha!!! I also got to go on another exchange on Thursday with an Elder Jensen who is our district leader!! We had a good time working together and he taught me a lot!!

Well, I am looking forward to this week. There is going to be a lot that will go on and I can't wait to tell yall all about it from my new area in Tulsa!!! Looking forwards to this new opportunity!!! I loved hearing from you guys and how awesome you all are doing!! There is nothing that gets me pumped more than hearing from you all and all your wonderful words of encouragement and inspiration. I love you all and I hope you have another fun and safe week!!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Happy Halloween

2) Fun at the Mall

3) Last p-day with Elder K......:(