Week 84: More COVID19 News!! 3/23/2020

Hello everyone! I don't have too much time, but there was a lot of things that happened this week. First things first, on Saturday we had the baptism for Rob. It was super awesome and super spiritual. Due to the complications with the virus, there was only 5 people there, but it still was a very awesome experience. He got baptized and confirmed in the same day since there was no church the next day, and now we are working with him to get the Aaronic Priesthood which he is pretty excited about. You can definitely tell that he was touched during that experience. We also had an awesome lesson with Cotton once again along with his son Bobby. We taught him about the restoration and it all seemed to make good sense with him, but he takes things a little slower so it was quite the process and build up. 

Well, now onto some more news. We have officially been told not to go door to door or street contacting or any personal interaction at all members included. This took place a few days ago and these last few days have been the LONGEST of my life. We are also asked to reach out to those we are teaching over technology, so from here on out, we will only be using technology for our teaching purposes. It's gonna be kinda hard, but the members are willing to help us out which is a blessing. We also got Facebook as well to use as a proselyte from home source. I was also informed that they are gonna start sending missionaries home early who's planned departure date is before September 1, since I fall under that category, I will be returning home from my mission on May 7, 2 and a half months early. I have mixed feelings towards it, but I am putting my trust in Heavenly Father through this. When I think of the effect COVID19 is having on my life, I also think of all the others suffering from it, due to health, the economy, and many other things. I still consider myself blessed in many ways so there's no reason to be negative though this circumstance is tough. 

Well everyone, It's gonna be an interesting month and a half. I'm looking forward to see what I need to learn and how I can grow my faith in the short time I have left out here in Oklahoma! Thanks for your continuous prayers and support. I love ya'll! 

Love, 

Elder Weese

1) The district

2) Corona outbreak! 

3) Where's the TP? 

4,5) Baptism for my man Rob!!

Week 83: Missionary Life Amid COVID-19 Outbreak 3/16/2020

In case y'all are wondering, I am alive! I'm doing well, I have plenty of food, toilet paper, etc. I can't believe how crazy things are getting! Everyone is talking about it. I've been hearing things about it everywhere I go. It's also crazy to hear about all the things that are being shut down because of it! It was weird not going to church yesterday and it's also weird that we aren't gonna be taking part of any weekly meetings this week as well. But hey, life just keeps going on and the work of the Lord continues. This quote by the Prophet Joseph Smith says it best this way...“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” 

I also appreciate the video that was sent out by our current prophet where he promises us that the Lord is bound when we do what He says. May we all be comforted that we can find joy in life and rich blessings when we follow the Savior, when we live by his example, and when we strive to be like Him. It can be easy to lose track of that amid all the chaos going on, but when we remember, it truly blesses us. I'm grateful for His love, and His concern. He is the one in control, He knows what's best for us, and no matter what life may throw at us, we may overcome, through Him. I'm also grateful for a living prophet who receives direct guidance from God for our welfare. We have the tools to go on with life, and that's what we need to use now more than ever. 

Well, other than all of that happening, we had a pretty good week. We moved out of our broken house which, on Tuesday, found out it was more dangerous than we thought. Our plumber found extension cords running our main power source from the breaker box underneath our house! That's something pretty scary and hazardous, so we moved out quickly! The "new-old" house is pretty good, still isn't finished being adjusted, but everything works, toilet and all. There is a chair here with bedbugs that we had to throw out this morning, hopefully we won't have any further problems with that. We also had a super awesome lesson with this girl named Angie along with her 2 daughters, Alexa and Autumn. They live right next to the church and have wanted to try it out, but never had. We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel and it was super powerful. We told her that Christ not only took upon Him our sins, but also all of our pains and afflictions and any sadness we have ever felt and we showed her in Alma 7 where it says that. She started crying because she had never thought of that before. She says her relationship with Christ feels a lot more meaningful because we shared that with her. It's exciting because her daughters, Alexa and Autumn, our super interested as well and they are all going to start reading the Book of Mormon together!! Exciting stuff!

Well you all, stay safe out there! I hope things are going well!! I'm looking forward to another week and I am excited to talk to you again soon! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Lunch with Skip, the "mormolic" (catholic and mormon as he likes to call it)

Week 82: Faith like the Brother of Jared!! 3/9/2020

Hello everyone, how's everyone doing on this fine and glorious day? It is a bit rainy out here in the state of Oklahoma, at least where I am at. I think we are looking at a pretty rainy week for the most part other than today. That's just the way spring is here! You have weeks where it rains and rains and the winds pick up and we get a few tornadoes happening close by...if we are lucky enough. I am glad that we are done with Winter and that we set are clocks back so it could be brighter outside during the evening. That makes me pretty happy!!

Well, it was another very fast week, but it was full of events. I'll start with the bad! The plumbing in our entire house is broken so not only are we unable to use the toilet, but the shower is backed up as well and we can't do laundry either. We had a plumber come on Saturday to check it out, and we are hoping he could come today to solve the rest of the problem. It's not fun having to walk to a gas station every time you need to use the bathroom in the morning. But hey, it makes you grateful for the little things you have because when they are suddenly taken away from you, you realize how important these things are and how much you miss having it, even though you were taking it for granted before the problems occur. That was what a good friend by the name of John Jones was telling us. He's a super awesome man who is developing a community center for children out of an old, run-down, abandoned school.We got to help him with some exterior projects a few days ago and it was a pretty good experience. He's not a member of the church, but is super faithful and is centering Christ and what he is doing for the community center. It's all contributed by the ministry he is apart of and he is very good friends with us missionaries. He even took us out to a BBQ shop called Smokin' Sisters after we helped him

Another big thing that happened this week, in fact yesterday, was that we were able to schedule Rob's baptism for March 21st which is in less than 2 weeks, but he's been waiting for a while! President Mobley will be baptizing him that week and we are going to do everything we can to set it all up! We are super excited for Rob and we know that this will bless his life more than anything else this world has to offer. He seems very excited himself which is great! As for the other people we found last week, like Linda and Sam, stuff came up in their lives so we had to reschedule with them and so hopefully we will teach both of them this week. We did end up finding and teaching a lot more people as the week went on. There's this girl named Angie who lives super close to the church. She was found by other missionaries, but contact was lost and we were finally able to track her down. She is super solid!!! She attends a church, but is looking to get out of it and she really thinks that God is leading her to our church. She knows a few members who have talked, and every time she would see missionaries and talk to them she felt as if it were signs from God. We taught her about the BOM and gave her a copy that had verses marked up and she is excited to read through it. We have an appointment with her tomorrow as well as another man by the name of Larry "Cotton" Washington. He was another person that had history with missionaries who we were trying to track down ever since I got to the area. Apparently he loves the book of mormon so much that he takes it to a baptist study group and reads it there. It makes the church pretty livid, but they don't want to do anything about it because apparently he is a huge part of his church. We found him outside his house and talked to him. He's an awesome guy! 

This week we were also impressed to visit the Walters family, a part-member family. I didn't know why we were so impressed to go by, but both of the times we went over, they were not home. But yesterday, the high councilor over our branch named Brother Briley came up to us with a text message from Sister Walters saying that James, her husband, is ready for baptism because he wants to take her through the temple. So that was pretty awesome and uncoincidental! This week I read about the Brother of Jared and how much faith he had, and the Lord was able to bless him with whatsoever he desired. He was so faithful that he even saw the finger of God as well as a manifestation of Jesus Christ. I know that faith truly brings miracles and because of my faith, my companions faith, as well as the HUGE faith that this small branch has, it has brought many miracles! There are great things that are happening here! I know that we can develop the faith like the Brother of Jared, but it all starts with our commitment, willingness, humility, and submissiveness to call upon the Lord at any given moment! I am excited for another week ahead!! I love you all and I will talk to you soon!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1-2) I don't see the "no trespassing" sign

3) The King!!!

Week 81: Good Times!! 3/2/2020

Hey everyone! How's it going this fine week?? I can't believe another week has flown by and that we are about to start another. I'm doing good here in Wagoner, the bed bug situation has been well taken care of, but this week we were challenged with a new challenge. It feels like one thing always stacks on top of the other, haha. This last weekend, Elder Roetker and I both received food poisoning from a Mexican restaurant we ate at and we were throwing up all through the night. Also, are toilet stopped working during that as well so we had to move it over to our bathtub. It was a helk of a night to say the least and I'm glad that it's over. It will be a funny time for the memories for sure though!

Things in Wagoner are still going very good. Our branch president, President Mobley, just got back from his cancer treatment down in Houston and is doing really well. I was astonished by how helpful he is to missionaries and how he can get things done. He seems like such a great leader and the branch is very lucky to have him. Now that he is back, Rob can now be baptized and he's thinking of a day when he wants to do it, but it will be in at least 2 weeks. That's going to be awesome and I'm very excited for it.

We also had a good week trying to find new people to teach and we found 2 pretty solid people this week and have started to teach them. The first one, Linda, we have already been back over and we will be going back again this Wednesday. She had interacted with missionaries before, but I think everyone in this small town has done at some point in their lives. We talked a lot about the spirit world and how it serves as an opportunity for those who didn't hear about Christ, to hear about him there. She didn't really like the idea because she thinks that diminishes the purpose of this world and that it gives people an easy way out who decide not to repent. She agreed to have us back to explain more and we also told her how God expects us to immediately act once we know what the right thing is to do, in other words, not to procrastinate repentance. So the Spirit World doesn't serve as an easy way out because the same spirit which possesses are bodies here go to the spirit world, so we will have the same desires and passions and if we aren't going to repent here, then we sure aren't going to repent there. She seemed to have a clear understanding as we taught the rest of the plan of salvation and we left her with a few challenges, like praying about it which she is down to do. I'm excited to go back!!!

The other person we met was named Sam and we haven't been back yet but we will be going back on Wednesday as well. We talked a lot about churches on his doorstep and why he thinks there is so many. I think he is an honest seeker of truth and he tells us that it could be possible that there is just one church out there that holds all the truth. It was a pretty good conversation and I'm interested to see what he gains from meeting with us!! Zone conference was this week as well and it was good to hear from everyone, our president and fellow missionaries. We talked a lot about the restoration and how much things would be different without it. When I think of that, I also think about what my life would be like without deciding to come out here on a mission. My life has been blessed by it in many undeniable ways and I'm super grateful that I had the opportunity to come out here and serve. I now have a clearer vision for what I want in my life and what kind of people I want around me. 

Well, it was a blessed week! I can't wait to take part in another one. I love you guys and hope to talk later!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Walkin around Wagoner!

2) Dinner with the Schnieders!

3-4) Funny house decorations

5) Keep the 10 Commandments people!!

WARNING: GRUESOME IMAGES

6-7) Bacon time!

8) Nice Dog for comforts!!

Week 80: Infested!!! 2/24/20

Hello everyone!! I hope everyone is doing well this fine day!! Things here in Wagoner have been going pretty well, other then what happened to us a few days ago. One morning, I woke up with like thousands of bites on my arms which are from bed bugs we received probably by being in an old trailer home visiting someone. I saw one on my clothes once we left there that I killed, but I guess it didn't stop anything. Last night we had this HUGE heater in our bedroom to kill those suckers so we won't have to worry about them again, during that we had to stay in another missionary's apartment. The problem should hopefully be solved now, but dang, I was hoping to go my whole mission without getting these things, but I guess that is make belief because literally every missionary out here has experienced something that had to do with them. I guess trials and hardships are for our learning and benefit I guess. To think, whenever I look back on my bike crash that took out my elbow, ya it was hard in the moment, but now it just makes me laugh, I'm sure that will be the case for this situation as well...

Despite that, we had a super good week!! I love the people here!! Members, investigators, random strangers,.. you name it. They are all so friendly and we continue to run into friendly people on the regular. It has really made the work fun and enjoyable. There's an awesome member named Tammie, she's in her 50's and she loves missionaries and we all think she is hilarious. Out of all missionaries she has been in contact with, I asked her what it would take for me to become her favorite. She told me to come back and marry me when you are 57! Haha what?? I guess whatever it takes! Haha jk! But she is so funny and very honest and real too. If she has questions about the church, she won't hesitate to ask, mainly because she's a convert!

We also had some cool discussions this week as well. One with Rob, who is sooooo close to baptism. We got talking about it and why he is so excited for it. He really thinks that it will help him become a better person and it will keep him from making the same mistakes he has made in the past. He has really good intentions about the whole thing and he comes to church every week. He's super awesome!!! We also had a lesson with a newer person we are teaching named Kenneth. He LOVES God and loves being engulfed in the word!! Missionaries in the past gave him a BofM and he totally agrees with the reality behind it, he said "there were 12 tribes under God's covenant. Why would he only talk to one?" He also asked whenever he was off work if he could go tracting with us. We were like, helk ya. His main issue however is he does NOT like organized religion. He thinks to much of the people and how they destroy settings where we are supposed to worship and that they just act so fake all the time. He hates that, so he doesn't go and thinks his relationship with God is fine enough to where church going isn't necessary for him. Then and there is where we talked about how our church is set up and organized and also talked about the sacrament and how that is necessary. He said he would come and see what church is like, hopefully this upcoming Sunday we will get him there.

I was also on an exchange this week with someone named Elder Hopkin who serves in Fair Oaks. We got bashed, but it was the most polite bashing I have ever been in, that continues to go to show the type of people in the area. It's awesome!

Well, I'm so pumped for this next week. We have many people on our radar to go and see so let's hope and pray they will all turn out! This is the most excited I have been about the work in a REAL long time! I'm loving this area! I hope you all have a great week! Love you all! TTYL!

Love,

Elder Weese

1-3) Bed Bugs DO Bite!!

4-5) Exchanges with Fair Oaks