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!!!!!!!!!!!!