Week 71: Christmas Is Here Once Again!!! 12/23/2019

Merry Christmas to everyone!! Man, what a time of year it has been. I don't think I have ever felt the spirit of Christmas stronger than I have been feeling it this year. Christmas as a missionary is literally the best and I am sooooo sad that this will be my last time celebrating it here in Oklahoma. I don't want this time to end! The members have been so awesome to us providing us with good Christmas cheer. Tomorrow for Christmas eve we will be going to a families house named the Hannahs, she asked us for a Christmas wish list and has had other members help her in getting the stuff that we had asked for Christmas and we will be opening all of them tomorrow when we get there. I'll have to share with you what I got. Also, thanks to everyone who has sent me stuff out here as well. You all are the best!

This week was pretty fun, and kinda funny because my companion has bronchitis and he coughs like a freight train. He was also tested for pneumonia and was told that he was not getting much oxygen to his left lung. Haha, nothing like a first winter in Oklahoma. We have been visiting a lot of people the last few days, trying to spread the love of Christ and the Christmas spirit into as many homes as we can. It is awesome because it has only strengthened my testimony of the Savior more and why we truly celebrate Christmas. it is so easy to get caught up in the stress of Christmas and that's what everyone in this state has a problem with. They forget why we truly have this holiday and that's why it has been a good opportunity for us to light the world and bring the meaning back in Christmas. We had a Christmas zone conference for the entire mission and that was pretty fun. We had an awesome training on the atonement and why it is important to know what the savior really had to go through for us. It bring peace to my mind knowing that he was willing to be put through anything for us even if it is the most excruciating pains. It is hard to think about it, but important for us to remember. We also had a silly talent show, my first movie in 17 months called the fighting preacher (really cool movie I would highly recommend it) and then the greatest part of all, we went Christmas caroling at assisted living centers. It was the best!

Well, everyone pray for the well being of my comp, he hates having bronchitis even though I think it's funny!! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and that you can spend it around the people who you love most! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Dinner with the Perrenoud's (clutch family who fed us 5 times this month!)

2) Christmas Conference ballas!

3) Merry Christmas from the goons!

4,5) Welcome back old friend!!!

6) Knox the legend!!!

Week 70: Another Fast Week!!! 12/16/2019

Well, hello everyone! With another fast week gone, we are seeing ourselves a week away from the huge Christmas holiday! Everyone is getting super excited, maybe even a little stressed, for it to come. Elder Williams and I have been going to strip malls a lot because shopping is blowing up and it is a good way to contact some people! We have been getting all different types of people. Those who are super nice and somewhat responsive, but a lot who don't want anything to do with talking. I think it's just because the time of year, hiding themselves from the real purpose of it because they are being over stressed with giving gifts for everyone! It is fun, I would say Elder Williams and I are in the best holiday spirit than anyone who lives in Norman. There is no stress to the holiday's as a missionary. Literally the members love us and they give us everything. So we have no stress and worries as to what will be happening over the holiday season.

This week went by sooooo fast. Probably because it was a week filled with many meetings! We had interviews this last Tuesday. It was awesome being able to talk to President one on one. I always look forward to this time of the transfer because I love the counsel President gives me and also for the area. I think that is when things start to improve the most is when we go by the counsel and direction of the mission president. Also with the other leaders in the church as well. President Christensen is focused on aligning priesthood keys, and when we do that's how we see the most success because when we align priesthood keys, we are aligning ourselves to the will of God and Jesus Christ. That's what Elder Williams and I are going to do from here on out. We need to find out what the vision of the Bishop is as well as the stake president and support them with it. We also had new missionary grad for Elder Williams. He is no longer a trainee!! It was fun being there. Literally all the new missionaries role play to the trainers the whole time, and I got to play a very awesome friend being taught! 

Well, lifes been good. We are meeting a ton of people every single day!! It's been super fun!! Now that Christmas is around the corner, we want to make sure we are serving extra hard so that we can bring the right spirit of Christmas to everyone! There is no better peace then what we find when we are focused on the Savior! So despite the stress and fun of Christmas, I challenge you to look for the long lasting happiness that comes when we are focused on the Savior! I promise that when we are focused on the savior, we will be blessed with so much peace, hope, and love!! Hope you all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Weese

Pics from New missionary grad, and interviews!

Week 69: A Quick Hello 12/9/2019

Hey ya'll! Sorry, I don't have much time! We just got done playing 9 games of b-ball and it just went on and on and on! I think it's bedtime for me now. But I'm still doing fantastic. Had another awesome lesson with Merelyn, the state representative, on Friday. We taught her the rest of the Plan and at the end she expressed how much she liked it and how she feels it gives her more of a purpose. She even invited us to go to the state capital one of these times, we might have to take her up on that offer. That lesson was probably the highlight of our week and I look forward to teaching her more in the future. Well ya'll, I hope everyone is doing well!! I'm looking forward for this week, Elder Williams is graduating from being a new missionary (the grow up so fast!) Love ya'll!! TTYL!

Love,
Elder Weese

1-3) Boulder

4) Rocky!

5) Mr. Duck

6) Someone Spilled!

7) Exchanges!!

Week 68: Happy Turkey Day 12/2/2019

Heyyyyyy!!! Happy Thanksgiving! I hope it was a joy and pleasure for each and everyone of you. This year for us was a lot different than last year. I didn't get sick and I only had one dinner, but last year I got super sick and ate like 4 dinners. It was a lot more pleasant this year. We had the dinner over at our ward mission leaders house and stuffed ourselves with turkey and pie. It was a great time. Beforehand, since we had no where to go, we went to the church and were there the whole morning just playing basketball. I couldn't complain about that really, but it made me super sore the next day. 

Well, there's some excitement in the air here in Norman. It feels like it's been a minute since I have written last and since then, there have been a few cool things that had happened. We are now teaching a representative for the state of Oklahoma. Her name is Merilyn Bell and apparently a ton of people here know a lot about her. I had no idea how big she was in the state as we were teaching her for the first time, but a lot of people know who she is and is very surprised that she was open for us to teach her. We met her tracting in a pretty nice neighborhood. You could tell from the get go that she was super intelligent and had a broad knowledge as to what is going on in the world, but when it came to religion, she had nothing. She grew up with it, but never was super intrigued by it and she told us the thing that intrigues her now to learn more about it is because now she has a family on her own. So she agreed to meet up and we met her at a restaurant on Wednesday and just got to know her a little better and taught her the first half of the plan of salvation. During the lesson, she told us that she didn't have such a huge relationship with God and Jesus Christ and that she has tried over and over but it never worked out. We were just testifying to her about God's love and the Spirit was so strong during it. She did tear up during it so I think she was hit with the spirit very hard and we will be seeing her again tomorrow to teach her the rest of the Plan!!! We also are teaching someone named Sherrie Snow who is actually trying to return to the church after having taken her name off the records of the church. She wants to come back because of how disconnected she felt with the other churches she went to and she has always been drawn back to this church. We will be finally meeting her tomorrow as well as Merilyn as well as a part member family named the Smiths. It's gonna be an awesome day and an awesome week.

Life is good out here. I'm thankful for this awesome place and for the many experiences that only comes by being apart of this glorious work. I'm looking forward to this Christmas season as we have the chance to remember the birth of the savior. I know he is the Savior of the world and that he is the Christ! He has made so much of an impact on so many people. I encourage all of you to light the world this year and to bring some happiness to those who may be needing it. I love you all. Be safe, especially through all of that snow I see that is happening back there....

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Mission Tour with Elders Peiper and Alliaud!

2) Happy giving of thanks!!

3) My neighbor came to see me!

4) Gifts from G-Ma!

5) BB8

6) Pond, pond, pond

7) Wazzup!!

8) It's about that time!!

Week 67: Six More Weeks in the Norm!!!!! 11/18/2019

Hello everyone!!! How are you all doing? I have been doing super good here in Norman Oklahoma! It was a very exciting week with lots of spiritual inspiration given to us from an area 70! We had Elder Paul B. Peiper come and speak with us along with Elder Ruben V. Alliaud also from the 70! Those 2 spoke to us as missionaries, then only Elder Peiper spoke to the entire stake for stake conference. It is kinda hilarious watching the leadership in the stake as there is a general authority there. They want to make sure everything is running just right so that they won't be rebuked or anything like that. We had dinner with one of the counselors in the presidency right before and we asked him about it and you could tell, he was pretty nervous. Everything did go good with stake conference however, he did roast all of the members who weren't at the adult session the night before. Why weren't they there?? Because it was the OU football game and you know how people in the south treat their football!It was quite funny because in the first half of the game, OU was getting blown out and all of that was during stake conference, then right when stake conference had ended and the 2nd half of the game had started, OU made a huge comeback and served Baylor its first loss of the season. Elder Peiper actually mentioned that saying, now the game actually didn't get good until stake conference was over... there is a principle there. Well, I liked the missionary meeting especially because he taught us a lot of stuff we can apply to the work as to member missionary work and teaching lessons. The things that the general authorities are simply inviting us to do as member missionaries is to just simply to invite. Go in with the attitude of "who can I invite to this?" or "who can I invite to that?" I know that there is no other joy we can have, and not a stronger spirit we can feel as we share the Gospel with our friends. We have been commanded to do it from our Lord Jesus Christ and if we truly love him and are grateful for all he has done, stuff like this can come easy. I have a strong testimony about this because I did not know what to expect coming out on the mission. If I could even do it! But the stronger my relationship grew with the Savior, it changed from "can I really do this?" to "it's easy to do because of the strong love I have for the Lord." I promise, as we love the Lord more and strive daily to increase our relationship with him, fear will be replaced by faith and doubt will be replaced with power. We need members in the work, or none of this can be possible!

Well, Elder Williams and I found out yesterday that we will be staying together here in Norman for 6 more weeks! We are very excited not to be transferred! I still think the Lord has some things in store for me in this area and it wouldn't mean anything to me if I would be moved out of here already. We are soooooo very excited and glad to be here! It's gonna be a super awesome time as we continue to serve with one another. No more Mr. niceguys here, we are cracking the whip hard core! Well, I hope you all are doing good, thanks for those who still email me! It's very fun hearing about your lives back home! I love you all and I hope you have another blessed week!

Love,

Elder Weese

 

Staying put!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 66: Just a Quicken 11/11/2019

Hey everyone!! What's up? Well, I'm gonna keep this one quick! Not too much new happening, sorry I wish there was more that happened. I also just barely jammed my finger sooooo hard playing basketball and it really hurts to type, still very injury prone, nothing new to that. I'm doing soooo good tho! The work has been hard here as of late, but I have felt a lot of love from Heavenly Father and I know he is helping me along and has good plans for this area. We just can't ever get discouraged because if you do, that's when the lack of effort comes in. I'm so grateful to be a missionary and the stuff that I have learned this far! I will never, in my life, forget the moments that I have had out here and am super grateful to God for giving me this opportunity. 

I guess the highlight of this week was yesterday. Sunday's are always the best in missionary work, but after Sacrament we had this one girl named Grace who is 9 come up to us and said that she wanted to be baptized. So we have a new 9 year old to teach now and we are very excited about that. Training has been good, it feels like Elder Williams is a pro already and I'm just a normal companion. It's crazy to think that this transfer will come to an end this week. I wonder what's going to happen, but I'm confident I'll stay, I just got here. I will let you know what happens though! 

Well, I'm excited to get another week going!! Hopefully next week I won't have a jammed and that I can give you more detail!! Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Spread Love

2,3) The district!

Week 65: Seems like the OK skipped fall!! 11/4/2019

Hello everyone!!! What's going on? This week went by super fast, I don't think I have too much to say about this week. We have been putting in some good work and trying to find people that we can teach here in this area. I guess something new, we are working with a part member family. George Herning is the non member and his wife Jessica is a member and we visited them. Apparently his last experiences he has had with missionaries weren't super positive because they were being way to pushy and he said he really didn't learn a whole lot from them, they were just always asking him to pray, and then constantly asking if he has received answers, and that was pretty much it. He just wants the information right now and then he is going to see where he truly stands with it. He's very cool, and has some good potential, he hasn't been married to his wife for very long so this church is still new to him, but he comes almost every week with her.

It was another pretty cold week!! I'm glad I didn't go trick or treating this year because man... It was so rainy and wet and freezing!! We had a lot more appointments fall through sadly, but we have just been separating the cream from the corn. We have a lot set up this week in the coming days so I'm hoping that will be good. There was this one girl named Dionna who we gave a book of Mormon to 2 weeks ago. She said she loved to read so we said we will come back in a week to talk to her, well we did, and she was like- "so I read your book and, I did not like it! It goes against my beliefs and I did some RESEARCH and didn't have the best experience with it. The key word in that sentence was research!! Ughh, I bet all missionaries have problems with this junk. Oh well, what can you do. You can't force it upon someone, you just have to poke holes and try to plant the seed. We had another experience where Elder Williams met this lady on exchanges and she said come back, sounded super promising! Well we tried... then tried... then tried until we got caught by here husband who looked a lot like Chevy Chase. He was like, "look, you guys have to move on! Quit coming over here!" We were like "wait, your wife told us we could come back." he said, "There is no way she would have ever said that" Well... she did!! Haha! Had to move on from that one as well.

Well, I hope and pray that we can get this appointments to actually pan out! It has been a struggle having to constantly cancel and come up with other things to do. We just need to be like, look! If you aren't really interested, JUST SAY NO!!! It's a lot better for us to move on and find other people rather than wasting our time coming back over and over because you didn't want to feel bad for saying no. Well, there's my rant for the day!! It's all part of the mission experience. I'm grateful for the hard times! Life is fun! Elder Williams is great, and the Lord is aware of us! I know he has something big in store here, we just have to keep working and rely on him constantly. I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Missionaries= dog's best friends!!

2) Day's worth of biking!!

Week 64: Tough Week But Things Are Coming Alive!!! 10/29/2019

Hey ya'll! Sorry for the confusion of me not writing yesterday. We actually had a meeting yesterday and I got to talk to my mission president for a bit! It was a good time! The sister training leaders in our zone gave an amazing training on being motivated by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We listed a ton of things on the board of who Christ is to us personally and it was very cool to see the many thoughts that were put into it. There are many things Christ did for us, and if that doesn't motivate us, I don't know what will. I have come to find while being on my mission that trying to do it by myself does not work at all. Missionaries need the Lord to help us with our efforts because first and foremost it is all his work. He knows what's going on, and he knows in whom he is preparing. Also, we need him and his atonement to constantly pick us up and keep us moving forward because times can be super hard. I don't know what I would have done without that driving power to get us through the hard times. I know that he is real, and that he is the son of God, and his sacrifice is there to help all of us and to help us have an increase of hope.

Well, I don't really have much to say about this week. It was a LONG stormy and freezing cold week. I think Oklahoma decided to skip Fall because it still felt like summer like a week ago, and now currently it feels like Winter. I think we are in for quite the rowdy winter if this is already coming along. Since the work has been slower here, it was a week where we really had to grind out trying to find people to teach. We have been working in every possible way we can and we have found a few people who seem somewhat interested in the Gospel message. I think over this weekend I was a little frustrated because we had set up these appointments and most of them fell through. One in particular, we talked to this lady for 30 minutes on her front porch and she seemed pretty excited to have us back over. When we showed up, she acted like she didn't even remember who we were. There was that plus many other appointments that fell through the mud. It's ok! Just have to be positive and keep seeking the elect. We have an appointment today with Blair soooo just pray for us that we might be able to get in with her and have a solid lesson with her. It will be much appreciated.

Well, I'm very excited for these upcoming weeks. I hope we will start seeing some more fruits of our labors, but I am committed to be patient for them. I know that the city of Norman is where I need to be. That either there is something the Lord wants me to learn while I'm here, or legitimately, there is someone in specific that awaits my arrival. I'm bound to find out! Well, thanks for all the love and support. I'll talk to you all next week to see how things go!! Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Weese

Pics from last p-day!!!!!!

Week 63: They Poisoned Me!!! 10/21/2019

Alright, well how's it going everybody? Things are going pretty good here out in the new area of Norman!! The work is still a little slow here, but is progressing. I guess I'll start off with why I chose this title today. Just a joke that I thought of because of the sickness I had this last weekend. All missionaries were required to go in and get a flu shot and just like last year, I became instantly sick because of it. So they literally poisoned me! Haha!! I'm doing pretty good now but that was probably the hardest thing about the week! Other than the OU football games. Man it looks like we are in for the long haul with these saturday's which are owned by college football. People are never happy to see us on that day and that is just a testament as to what happened on Saturday. It is definitely Idol worship when it comes to football. It's like a religion!! 

So Matt, the man I told you all about last week, we had another lesson with him this last week! We did some research on his teaching record and found out that he had been taught everything, multiple times, not only that but as we were talking to him, he says he has been around missionaries ever since he was 5. SInce he is as smart as he is, we invited our mission president over to the lesson with us and from what was planned to be a lesson on Moroni 10, turned into a jabber war with my mission president as to why he hasn't been baptized yet. He claims to know the church is true, that what we are doing as missionaries is the literal gathering of Israel... don't ask how he knows that, the book of mormon is true regardless of who wrote it, and said that the Gospel message has changed every aspect of his life. He just won't get baptized and join the church for some reason. He just thinks to much and I learned something valuable from my mission president from that lesson, how we should all be accepting the Gospel, as a child would. That is literal doctrine straight from the mouth of Christ, and I think the simplicity behind the Gospel is too hard for him to grasp. He thinks he could hold advantages over his friends by just staying neutral as he presents the Gospel to them, that's how much he likes it. He is a missionary! His views and his concepts are quite interesting I don't know how to describe it. So unfortunately since he knows everything, there is nothing more we as missionaries can do. He is going to stay in touch with our mission president, but as for right now there is nothing else to teach him. I do think he is going to remember the things we talked about in this lesson and I think that could lead him to be baptized in the future, but as for right now he is not quite ready.

Alright, so another cool story that transpired this last week. We had a lesson with devout catholics that the sisters were teaching and Elder Williams and I were like, why the helk are these people being taught?? They were literally trying to convert us the whole time as they told us stories about all the saints to have ever existed. So we had to let them go as well, and that was frustrating because of how empty our teaching pool was after that. Even though that was hard, me and my comp just took a deep breath and decided to knock doors in that neighborhood right after that. There, we met this lady named Blair! When we showed up, she was like," hey I have students that go on missions, in fact one of them left 2 weeks ago and gave me a book of mormon and taught me a little about the church, she then asked me if I would meet with missionaries and I was like, that would be awesome." So then uncoincidentally, we showed up at her door! She even mentioned that it was a sign from God. Her and her husband are looking for a church that is the same everywhere you go since they travel a lot for military purposes. We asked her if she and her husband would like to learn more about the church and she got super excited and said yes!! So what had been a waste of time getting lectured at by some catholics turned into a testimony builder for me of the Lord puts us where we need to be. He needed us at that lesson because we wouldn't have been in that area if we hadn't had it. I'm so excited, we have a lesson with them next week and we are so stoked.

Well, life is good! I have been doing amazing and this area is growing on me. The members here are awesome and super happy that we are here. We still have a lot of work to do, but I can see great things coming. There are prepared people here, we just need to trust in the Lord for us to find them. Have a great week everyone, love you all!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Sorry, just the one! Elder Williams and I say hello!!!!

Week 62: The New Mormons in Norman #sorrypresnelson 10/14/2019

Hey everyone! It's Elder Weese coming at you live from Norman Oklahoma!! I have officially moved on to some new beginnings and I can't wait to see what happens in the future in this area. I miss Edmond dearly, but I am so happy to be here. The work here is a little slow, we only have one person on our teaching pool, there is a lack of member trust because of what previous missionaries have done here... but all of this is going to end!! We have already visited a lot of our members and we let them know that we have some great plans getting ready to take place in this area. They all seemed pretty excited that they are getting Elders now because there were sisters here for a very long time! As much as it is hard being able to see this challenge we have ahead, I can't wait to take it on and be able to see some growth happen here!

I'm not going to lie, I wasn't too excited that I was going to be not only training, but training in an area where we both have no clue what is going on, but I have literally gotten probably the best new missionary that came out in the group this last week. His name is Elder Williams and he is a stud. He acts like he has already been out for a year and he is a work horse.  Not nervous at all to talk to people! It has made this assignment a whole lot easier. He is from Roosevelt Utah which is right near Vernal Utah. He likes a lot of the same stuff I do so we have a lot in common. We are already killing it as a companionship, Norman had no idea what was coming. Church was pretty good! This ward is a lot different from the Edmond wards I used to be in. Up in Edmond, it was more of a richer environment with a lot of very sophisticated people, here everyone is more laid back. It is more of a cowboy town, and everyone here are Sooner fans. Everyone welcomed us tremendously which is weird because we have been told that they aren't really missionary minded, maybe it was just because they are happy to have Elders now! It was a super good day at church with fast and testimony meeting! The weekend was pretty hard though because of the huge football game that happened! Sooners vs. Longhorns, we decided it would not be a good idea to knock doors during that game, so we went to a strip mall to see if anyone would talk to us, and everyone there was rushing to get back to the game, so everyone here loves the sooners so it was kinda a lost cause for us.

Well, the only person on our teaching pool is someone named Matt. We had an appointment with him the 2nd day we were here and he has a pretty neat story! He is THEE smartest guy I have ever met and his brains led him to great wealth. He is an product inventor for this company he works for and I don't think I have met anyone that matches his level of intellect. His house is HUGE! The reason why he is meeting with us is because he went to the temple open house and filled out a card for missionaries to come and meet with him, and they have been ever since. He loves our church, loves the Book of Mormon, and has admitted that meeting with the missionaries has changed his life! You may be thinking, we isn't this dude already a member by now, the answer is his intelligence. He has done a lot of study of other religions and even though he says that ours is his favorite by far, he believes that being open to all religions is what helps him learn about God and he doesn't believe that one religion holds all the truth. I think he needs to think more outside the box, and turn to the Lord for answers because right now it seems like he is just getting information from us, but if what he has been getting is changing his life, there is still a whole lot of potential with him. He also asked us to set up a meeting with the prophet and he was DEAD SERIOUS! We encouraged him to write a letter to him, and asked if we could bring our mission president over. He says he is open to it! He is awesome, I can't wait to work with him throughout the course.

Well ya'll, I feel blessed! I am super happy to be here! I can already see the growth that is going to happen as time goes on and I am super excited. Time is going by fast! I can't believe I am down to 9 months left. I might have 1 or 2 more areas left in me! It is exciting times! The church is true, missionary work is the best, and I know God loves each and everyone of us! Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1-8) Goodbye Edmond!

9,10) Elder Williams (my new greenie)

11,12) Getting acquainted!

13,14,15) Luxurious life style!- I forgot tell you all how sick our new apartment is. It is like a 5 star resort!!!!