Week 59: Wait, is it my birthday?? 9/23/2019

Hey everyone! How's everything going? I am so glad I was able to hear from some of you and especially glad for those who have been sending me stuff the past week! I guess, indeed it is my birthday. Turning 20 doesn't really feel too different! I have had to remind myself many times that it is my birthday, with the help of a few people, it has been on my mind! It just feels like an ordinary p-day where we will go out and do some things, then get right back into the work! I'm feeling older I guess. My body is starting to not catch up with me, I think that might be that I have been working harder, and also working out a lot more ever since my elbow has been healing, so I am pretty sore from that!

Well, something huge happened this week. There wasn't a lot that went down, besides this main point. Henry got baptized and confirmed this last weekend and it was super awesome. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, I really didn't know what to say that could add onto the knowledge he already has. He is super smart and he basically has been teaching me these last few months. It is always amazing to see someone enter into the waters of baptism, especially one who I have grown so close with! He's an amazing young man and will continue to do amazing things as he goes on throughout the rest of his life, now having the Gospel be apart of it. Henry, like most people in Oklahoma, has been influenced greatly by the life of Jesus Christ! What we do is we take what they have knowledge wise, and then we can see if we can add onto it a little more. When you receive more, the more blessing come your way. It was awesome! It was also cool to see Henry's dad baptize someone for the first time, and then also confirm him as well. He was more nervous than Henry was, but the spirit was definitely with him. I could tell!

Well, sorry this is pretty brief. I'm gonna go ahead and celebrate the rest of my birthday by doing some fun things on this p-day! We have a fun day planned ahead! Y'all are amazing! I hope you all know that! Thanks for all that you do! I love yall!

Love,

Elder Weese

1,2) Henry's baptism #gotem

3,4) Dope name tag pics!

5,6,7,8) We hit the park!

9) #arachnaphobia

Week 58: The Fruits of Our Labors 9/16/2019

Hello everyone! How's it going? It's good to be able to have this opportunity to talk with you, as it is every week! We have had a super awesome week and it has been constant go, go, go! In fact, we are sacrificing some time today out of our p-day to teach a lesson to the Jeffery's- Mia, Katya, and Max! It's been a good minute since we have been over there because of how busy they have been over the Summer and during the start of the school year so we decided to take advantage of any day they had available. I'm excited to see how that goes!

Well, I have quite a few things to report on. I'll start off with Henry! We are for sure having his baptism this weekend September 21st! All he needs is an interview, which will be happening on Wednesday, and then he is set! A member in our ward who has been super helpful with this whole process, Sister Haymore, sat down with his mom to talk about Henry's plans to join the church. Even though we knew going into this that she is supportive, it was still nerve racking because we didn't know what she would say. But she is entirely on board and also encouraging to the idea of it happening. She knows that it will help her son become a better person. It's cool to see, when we look at the Gospel in the right way, we and others can see how good of people we are as we live to those standards. Henry's mom sees that in our church, so she is in full support, in fact we will be seeing her at the baptism as well even though she is a devout catholic. Henry's dad, who has been returning back to activity in the church, will be baptizing him and this last weekend he was able to get the Melchezidek priesthood to confirm him as well. It has been a big week for the Coffman's. I will be speaking at his baptism about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I'm excited for Henry to receive that gift. There is going to be so much power in his life because of it!

As we have been working in both wards, we have found 7 people who are wanting to learn more about the Gospel! All of them seem super promising as well. I'll start with this family named the Keens! We have Britt Keen who is the dad, Mary Keen who is his wife. They are both in the car business in the sales department. So there's a huge inner connection with that. They have two boys Brody who is 13 and Colton who is 11! Here's the story! They have been to the first ward twice in the last couple of months because a member in our ward named Brother Hanson has invited them out. The last time they were there was 2 weeks ago and I was able to talk with them after and all of them loved church! Later on that week, we felt like we needed to reach out to Brother Hanson and see if his friends would be interested in us coming over and visiting with them. He let them know, and gave them our number. We got a text from them on Thursday and they invited us to there home the next day, which was Friday. We had a good discussion about some of the questions they had about our church, and how it was not coincidental how we got this thing to happen. A few days after they attended our church, they were talking among each other saying how much they love, in their words the "mormon" church! Then a few hours later Brother Hanson called them and said that the missionaries wanted to meet with you. They knew right after that it was a sign! They seem pretty prepared to here the message of the restored Gospel and they are a family that is gonna be high on our radar.

The 3 other people we picked up during this week were Daniel, Brook, and Brianne! We found Daniel by trying a less active that moved out. Daniel was this person's replacement and from the get go, he has been super nice to us. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and why there are so many churches, then he accepted a return appointments so we could come back and share some of those things with him. That return appointment was on Friday as well and it was so good! He also considers it as a non coincidence because he said he is not the one to learn about religion, but just as I was considering it, y'all arrived at my door. That just goes to show that the spirit is always leading us to where we need to be. The next person we found was Brook. She has had discussions with missionaries before and is friends with a few of the members in the 3rd ward! In our appointment with her, we talked all about her life story and how much she has been through! She has really felt the hand of God in her life especially through her trials! It was cool that we met her and got to know a little bit more about her. It puts things into perspective that we all have trials and tribulations, some are different than others. We just have to understand why God gives them to us. Then finally, Brianne! She has also met with missionaries before, actually recently and she has been on baptismal date several times but had never worked out because she has a smoking problem. Talking with her, we were able to see how ready she was, she just had this one hang up! We are going to keep working with her and try to get her back on date!

Those things were just the few of the many things that happened to us this week. We have found many part member families and the members are so helpful here with missionary work, in fact it's something they want to do! It was an all-around awesome week! In all honesty, we experienced something pretty hard during the first few days of last week. We have had numerous things cancel on us, no one came to church, Emma has fallen off the face of the planet, and we also received a disappointing text that no missionary wants to receive. It was from the Terry's telling us that they didn't want to be taught anymore. When all that stuff happened, it really wanted to make me give up on Edmond! We have worked soooo hard in many ways that have led us to these people, and they didn't ever turn out. So it was frustrating those first few days, but then we had zone conference on Wednesday. We talked about how this is the Lord's work. He knows exactly when his children are ready, that is something the missionaries can't determine! That message helped me out a lot, and right after that meeting everything blew up. Finding all those people, Henry being set for baptism, and having quite a few people come to church! It has been a blessing and I am so happy that I get to experience first hand this wonderful work and everything that goes along with it! If only you all could be here to see how awesome things are out here, you all would understand! I love all of you and I look forward to hearing from you all again!

Love,

Elder Weese

1,2,3) Fun at zone conference!

4) Dinner at Braums!

Week 57: Things Are Brewin' 9/9/2019

Hello everyone!! How's it going?  Don't have too much time today! We got some bowling reservations once again and I can't wait to destroy my fellow missionaries. Haha!!! This week was pretty good! It was super busy! We have been contacting a ton of people from the 3rd ward,trying to get to know everyone there. I'm way happy with how everything is going! My companion is literally awesome! We get along so well! I'm glad we passed the stage of awkwardness that all companionship's face! Now we literally just make each other laugh the whole entire day! The 3rd ward is very helpful! The ward mission plan is called go with the flow. Something very natural and easy to do. We challenge the members to "invite" people into the flow of their lives. It's all for the cause of building relationships with one another. When that happens, our friends will start seeing the light we have, and they will want that more than anything else. We don't push members to hand out a book of mormon before a deadline, but this plan we have helps the members do missionary work in a more comfortable way for both the member and their friends! It's a genius idea, and right after we learned about this plan from our awesome ward mission leaders, the Robins, they came out with videos on gospel library that explains it pretty well. There called the "come and see" videos! Check em out!!

Well, we have been meeting a ton of people! Trying to find our part member families because that is always a good way to find people to teach and who already have that connection with the Gospel. There has been a lot of good visits, and a few awkward visits, but hey.. you need them both to get the real experience of what missionary work is like! I feel like this week we are gonna feel a lot more comfortable in this new ward now that we've met a lot of people! We have a few part member families who said we could come back, so we will see if they'd be interested in taking discussions!

I can't wait for this week. We have zone conference on Wednesday, and a few exchanges this week as well! We also are gonna spend a lot of time finding more people to teach, especially in the 3rd ward! I can't wait to let you all know how it goes! Love you guys, and wish me some luck in bowling!!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Church paparazzi! (AKA Sis. McKinley)

2) My friends!!!!

3) Angry goose! (tried chasing me afterward)

4) Sunset views from gas station!

5) Already??????

6) Happy p-day!!! 

Week 56: Start of transfer #10 9/3/2019

Hey everyone! Sorry this is coming out a day late. Because of Labor day, literally all of the libraries in Edmond that we could think of were closed, so we got permission to send some emails out today! It was a pretty good week. A pretty eventful week! Starting new transfers with either getting a new companion or leaving to a new area feels like school starting a new trimester, it takes a hot minute for us to get used to it, but when we do it feels so natural and it feels like you have been companions for longer than listed. Elder Stolte (my new comp) and I are just barely reaching that point since we have only been comps for slightly under a week! My first impressions on him tho, he is AWESOME! He's so funny, probably has the funniest laugh out of all of my companions. We have had a good time so far working Edmond 1... and now Edmond 3 of course! I can't wait for more things to come in the upcoming, short, 5 weeks!

We had some pretty good things happen to us this last week, especially on Sunday. The first few days of the transfer you are focused on getting to know your companion, and then setting goals for yourself, and the area! But when Sunday came around, that's when things got way hot! We had a 8 people we are teaching come to church! We had Henry, the Jeffery's, Holly Hanson, and this family named the Keens who are potentials on our radars. They all had a good experience at church especially that last family that I listed off! They have a husband, a wife, and two kids- one teenager and one 11 year old! They've been to church in the past before and liked it, so I think we see some great potential with that family! Something else that happened on Sunday which was awesome was we were able to set a baptismal date with Henry for September 21! In previous lessons we have been asking and asking how he has felt about it, and his answer this week was a solid "let's do it!" He loves the book of mormon, loves coming to church, and wants to be like aaronic priesthood holders that he sees passing the sacrament weekly! I hope and pray that he holds steadfast to his commitment. He's come a long way!

Everything else has been pretty great! We have been all over the place trying to introduce ourselves to as many people we can in the 3rd ward! We have some strong members there who I can't wait to serve with! THey seem like a very missionary minded ward! I think that is all credit to our ward mission leader! He is challenging everyone to "go with the flow" meaning to invite friends to things that happen in the flow of their lives! Wheter it be just dinner, hanging out, or things like church or bible studies. It seems like it is working out in this ward and the members are pumped to do it! Member missionary work IS the most effective way to do missionary work, and since the ward is already on the ball with it, I see some great things coming! Well, thanks to everyone who has been writing to me! It has been awesome to hear about things going on back home! I hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk to yall next week!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) New comp Elder Stolte

2) Making our arrivals

3) Dinner at Freddies!!

Week 55: In for the Long Haul 8/26/2019

Alright, well this week went by really fast!! This last weekend we were able to find out the news with transfers and what will be happening in the next 6 weeks in my life! I will be staying in Edmond for my 5th transfer. That means when this transfer is all said and done, it would mark 7 months being in this area! My longest serving area is still continuing to get longer and longer. I am very happy to be staying here tho! It is always hard starting over in a new area, packing around everything, having to build new relationships, and a completely different environment makes it hard sometimes so I am pretty glad that I'll be staying here. I will be getting a new companion however. His name is Elder Stolte! I don't know too much about him but I have talked to him a few times and he was my replacement in Tulsa! So we have a lot we could talk about when we start our companionship! Although it may seem like I am in for the long haul, I have come to the realization that 6 weeks feel like 6 days so I have a feeling it will fly by! I just hope I can make the most of the time I have left here! Not only will I be serving in the 1st ward, but they are giving us the 3rd ward to work in as well, so there is a lot of work to be done.

Well, this week was a little unusual. My current companion, Elder McCuen has stress fractures in his knees, so he was required to keep off of them this entire week! So I have been on exchange after exchange with the UCO elders, Elder Wildman, Elder Kestner, and Elder Barben. I have spent most of the time on campus with them so our area was literally untouched this whole week! We gotta catch up once Elder Stolte gets back here! Campus life was pretty fun though while it lasted. You run into people that have so much in common with you it makes it very easy to talk to people, and not only easy, but it's super fun and exciting. It reminds me of being back at school and talking to people there. Maybe I will get lucky enough and serve on a campus full time one of these transfers. I usually compliment other people's watches when I walk by them, or anything they are wearing in general. Hopefully I will be able to go on many exchanges there next transfer.

Well, yesterday was super awesome! We had 4 people we are teaching come to church. We had Henry and Katya come as always! We had the Terry's come for the first time since I've been here (a part-member, less active family we are teaching) and also we had Emma come and not only that, but her mom came with her! We were pretty nervous when we found at she was coming and as a missionary, you can't control what goes on in Sacrament, like "what's gonna be said" or "I hope nothing comes out that might be offensive to them." But it was a pretty good meeting and many people talked with her after. I hope after leaving that service that she feels a lot comfortable for Emma to be associated with this so-called "cult!" Haha! We also taught Henry yesterday as well. We read Alma 32 with him where it talks about faith as compared to a seed. The only way that our faith can grow is if we our constantly nourishing it through continuous learning, and acting on the things we learn. Henry admitted that he has seen good things come out of meeting with us and coming to church, he just needs to build off of that and continue to act on the things we teach him.

Well y'all, I am very excited for a fresh new start. It will be the start of my 10th transfer which is just unreal to me. The mission is changing, I am changing, but the work and the Gospel remains the same! Thank you all for all the prayers and support! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Weese

1,2,3) Campus times!

4,5) Frat rock!!

6) My man Henry!!

Week 54: Beaten and Broken: but still Killin 8/12/2019

Hello my wonderful family and friends! How is everyone doing on this fine Monday? Once again I am having someone type this for me because I'm still healin up from my injuries that I sustained a week ago. Speaking of which I had an appointment with an orthopedic doctor and I asked him if he could x-ray my other wrist because it was giving me some pain and I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright. I didn't break it but I'm wearing a brace on it now because they said it's sprained. So now I feel like a bionical man with all my armor. I will be going back in three weeks to the same doctor so we can follow up and see how my healing process is going. But I think everything is going to be okay. And the doctor says it should heal very fast. Its weird because I could possibly be transferred by then BUT let's not jump to conclusions or assumptions. 

Despite me being broken and slow we had a pretty good week, a really fast week as well. We are getting closer and closer to the next transfer and I can't believe that I am almost done with training. This week we will be having New Missionary Graduation which is weird because it takes me back to when I was in that situation no too long ago. So it should be interesting. Emma is still scheduled to have her baptism this Saturday so that's another thing we are looking forward to. We had a lesson with her on Friday and we were supposed to have her interview on Saturday but she hit a curb and exploded her tire and we went over and helped her with that but the car she drives is an ancient luxury car so it was impossible to even get the jack out of the car because it was screwed in place. We also had nice people stop and try to help but even that wasn't enough. We needed to reschedule so hopefully that gets done sooner rather than later. She is so ready! 

Yesterday we had another lesson with Henry. We are still trying to work with him on setting a date for his baptism but it has been a slower process. We talked about the law of tithing with him and he accepted it as a commandment. We also asked him how the Word of Wisdom has been going and his tea drinking. And he said, "I'm going to be honest, I had some yesterday" haha. So we set new goals to help him overcome his tea addiction. We also talked a lot about the Priesthood and if and when he gets baptized he will have the opportunity to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. At first he was worried about that because he thought that it would be a huge responsibility but after talking about it more with him he thought it was pretty cool. Now all he needs to do is to continue to read and pray and see when a good time would be for him to be baptized. We will be following up with him this Sunday. 

We had a cool experience with a part member family named the Hanson's. We haven't been able to teach in their home for awhile but yesterday he invited us over because he has been experiencing some really weird health problems and he asked us if we could give him a blessing. It was a good opportunity for us to be in their home knowing that his wife is not a member because she got to see first hand the power of the Priesthood. It was a very good blessing! 

I shared the cool things that happened this week already now here is a weird/funny experience. I was in the store with Elder Kestner on exchanges and we were walking around trying to help people with their shopping and usually they are pretty nice to us about it and really appreciate us doing that but in this instance the last lady we talked to was very old and very grumpy. In our mid introduction of ourselves she cut us off and said, "You must be very bold to come up to me and interrupt what I am doing, get out of my way!" I said, "We are just trying to help people" and she said, "I already said no, now do you want me to say it louder?!" So she created a huge scene and there were literally five people watching it. All Elder Kestner and I could do was walk off and laugh our heads off and say, "We'll see her at Judgement" It's cool how we have experiences like this because now with the experience I have as a missionary I'm not phased by any of that, as I probably would have been back home or at the start of my mission. You just got to be as Christ-like as you can be in every situation. 

Well, this week was awesome! Thank you all for all the prayers and support as I have been going through the situation I have been going through. I have felt the extra strength to fulfill my responsibilities that I have and I know that's because of all your wonderful prayers. So I appreciate it. I love you all and I hope you have another awesome week.

Stay bruisin!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) Biggest/heaviest coat ever!

2) Walkin' the park!

3) Welcome to the McKinley's!

Week 53: It's Been a Wrecked Week!! 8/5/2019

Hey everyone how's it going? It's Elder Weese in the house again. You won't believe what happened this week. On Thursday I was on an exchange with Elder Wildman and it was a pretty good day to start off but around 5 o'clock we were running late to dinner on our bikes. And going a little too fast down a hill on a busy road I hit a bump that I have ridden over about a thousand times but for some reason I wasn't paying attention this time and I hit the bump a little too fast and my whole body went over my handlebars and I went arms and face first into the cement. I got up and I saw Elder Wildman laughing + a billion stars and 40 other people watching. I felt like a complete idiot. But, I got the injuries to show for it. I found out the next day that I fractured my elbow. So I am currently wearing a sling at this point. I'm also currently letting someone write my weekly email because I'm slow at doing it with my one hand. (this is Elder Oaks. I am writing for him) I also, because I hit my face on the ground, sustained an injury to my front tooth. And ended up cracking my tooth. The dentist told me if it wasn't for my permanent retainer I would've definitely lost my tooth. So... blessings. I'm doing pretty good right now. Just a little sore. And I feel some whiplash in my neck. So pray for me and my well being. (Elder Oaks: And thus we see Elder Weese is in need of much prayer.) 

 

Other than the accident it was a pretty good week. We had a lesson with Emma once again and we taught her the Word of Wisdom. In fact, it was right after I had my accident so I was trying hard not to die during that lesson. But regardless of that it went good. Emma is super ready to be baptized on the 17th! We are very excited for that day! She even came to church this week with one of her friends which was way awesome. We also had a lesson with Henry but unfortunately due to some of his concerns we needed to take him off baptismal date. He is nervous about talking to his mom and also how his friends would react if he became a member of the church. He really wants to be baptized but he can't be rushed at this moment. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and that helped him with some of his concerns with drinking tea and he's striving to live it so that is just an example of where his desires are at. He's so awesome! Another lesson we had was on Wednesday with a man named Delmar who I told you about a few weeks ago. It was so cool! He was very excited for us to be there that he even set up a spot for us outside before we even showed up. He also came prepared with questions he had about the Book Of Mormon that we were able to talk about while we were teaching him about the restoration. You could tell that the spirit hit him very strong during that lesson and how everything made sense to him. He didn't really know how to react when we told him about Joseph Smith because the spirit was so strong. He has some really good potential and is super awesome because he's very open minded about learning about the church. 

Well we also had zone conference this week where we talked a lot about perfectionism. It was very awesome to hear at that moment of time on my mission. Especially because of the injury I sustained a few days earlier. There are so many trials in life even little trials that can seem to throw off our daily routines and the things that we like to do. For example, no more basketball in the morning, no more riding my bike, I have to have my companion tie my shoes which sucks because I hate asking for help, but the thing I am learning from this experience, even in the short days that I've had it, is that when we put God first by submitting to his will and keeping his commandments he will provide for your needs. That has seemed to make things a little easier because it sucks being sick/hurt on a mission. God gives unto men weakness that men might be humble. And his grace is sufficient for all men who humble themselves before him. And if we humble ourselves before him and have faith in him he will make weak things become strong unto us. So don't be afraid to turn to the lord because he can help you and has the power to.

Well y'all thanks for all the emails and the wonderful support. I am very excited for this upcoming week. We have some awesome plans. I hope all of you are doing well and are livin' it up! Have an awesome week! Love y'all

Love 

Elder Weese

1,2) Zone Conference

3,4,5) #getwrecked

6) P-days at top golf!