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

Week 79: Hello From The Small Town of Wagoner!! 2/17/2020

Hey everyone! How are you? Man, things sure have changed in the life of Elder Weese. If you didn't hear from the last email, I was transferred out of Norman last week and am now in a town called Wagoner, OK! Things have been super good so far! My companion, Elder Roetker, is from California and he has been out on his mission for over a year! He has been in this area one transfer longer than me so he knows his stuff! These past few days I have just followed him around every where I went trying to learn as much as I can about this area. I live in a pretty old house in an older neighborhood, it's pretty small and is kinda falling apart, but it's actually pretty awesome! I never thought I'd live in a house on my mission, with its own yard, sheds, and even a storm shelter and fire pit! The town itself is pretty old as well! Everything here looks like it has been around for a long time and there is also a train that comes roaring through this place like 20 times a day, sometimes it wakes me up! It is a branch here, yesterday we had like 40 people show up to church, but I heard that's a small number for this branch. I guess a lot of people here are under the weather, or just had a valentine's/president's day vacation! We also don't have a car so we have to bike everywhere, even to church on Sunday's in our suits! 

As you can see, this area is a bit different than the previous ones I've been in, but I LOVE it! I would say the thing that is the best part of it all is how friendly everyone is here. Not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about going to a small town, but that left right on my first night I was here. I guess you'd say I was in bit of a culture shock that first night when I found out how nice everyone is here. We were at Walmart that night and it felt like everyone we said hello to had the nicest comments back to us, and also as we are biking everyone waves to us as well. I'm not in Norman anymore!! Everyone in the branch here is also very nice as well! I felt very welcome on my first Sunday here, 2 members in this branch fed us 2 times this past week, the Schneider family plus this super funny lady named Tammie, members who work at restaurants let us come in for free food once a week so we get free BBQ and free pizza every week, and even this morning we had a member take us out for groceries and offered to pay for all of it which was 80 bucks worth! Needless to say I am well taken care of here for the next little while!

We have a lot of people with potential we have been trying to get in contact with. There is this one man named Rob who will be getting baptized, he is just waiting for our branch president to get out of the hospital so he could preform the baptism! We taught a lesson to this young boy named Claude who is also wanting to get baptized. We taught him the plan of salvation and also about prayer. Apparently he doesn't really like praying, so I challenged him to a contest saying if he prays more times then me this week, I will bring him a surprise, just to motivate him to do it! He was so down for the challenge and even at church when I saw him again, he was trash talking me about it and how many times he has been praying! Obviously, since missionaries pray more than the average person in their daily lives, I'm only counting the morning and night ones just to make it fair!

We have many things going for us in this area! I'm super excited to be here in Wagoner and get to experience what the Lord has in store for this place! I see some very big things coming!! I look forward to another great week and I hope you all have a good one too! Love ya'll! 

Love, 

Elder Weese

1-3) A few goodbyes in Norman; Rex, Bittle, and George and Jessica Herning

4-5) Last day in Norman

6) The Norman gang now in Tulsa! 

7-8) New Crib

9) New Church

10-11) New Comp (Elder Roetker) 

 

Week 78: New Things On The Horizon 2/10/2020

Hello everyone!!! What's going on?? Things have been poppin here in the state of Oklahoma! Some big things have happened especially over this last weekend! We found out about transfers on Saturday night and I will be moving on from the Norman area. Despite everything that happens, it's always sad leaving an area. It's always weird going down streets you'll probably never go on again, or seeing people you'll probably never see again,... it's a sad thing, but also exciting to see new things and be apart of new challenges that strengthens me. I will be taking my service over to a small town called Wagoner where there is a tiny branch there. It has been a REALLY long time since I have served in a small city, but from what I can remember from my service in the small town of Vernon is, yes it's small, but it feels like you become a part of a family, a happy family where everyone loves and embraces each other without strife or tension. I admit to say that I am looking forward to that sooooo much!! My companion's name is Elder Roetker and he has been out for about a year so he is pretty seasoned. 

I have so much hope and optimism for this upcoming transfer. It's an exciting time to be a missionary. I will also miss living in a luxury of an apartment. Never thought I would be that comfortable as a missionary. Elder Schroeder will be missed as well. We had a sweet time together and got along super well. Norman has so much potential now with the recent plans we had made. I wish I could see the fruits that come from some of these things, but I know it's the Lord's timing and he needs me in Wagoner. 

Well, I wish I had more to say, but we are off to a dinner right now. This week will consist of saying goodbye to the good people in Norman, getting to my new area, and starting the new challenge!! Can't wait to get it going. I hope you all have a blessed week! I'm grateful for you all!!

Love,

Elder Weese

1) We finally had snow!

Week 77: What A Blessed Week!! 2/3/2020

Hello everyone!! I am here once again after a quick blur of a week. This was probably theee best week that I have had here since coming to Norman. It was SOOOO awesome!!! It has also been a little more peaceful because are quantity of people living in the apartment went from 5 to now just 2 again so that has made things a little easier, also being able to not be bound to a car share either with Elders who's area is the entire zone, so we now finally are able to see the car once again. Well, this day has been good as well! I had an appointment to fix my permanent retainer up in OKC today and we took advantage of our travel up there and made a few stops in the city that I had never had the chance to see yet. Got to see where the Thunder play as well as Devon tower, which is the tallest building in Oklahoma. I wish we had the chance to go to the top of it. People tell me exaggeratedly that you can see the entire state of Oklahoma because that's its highest peak. Maybe next time... But it was a cool travel and I took some sweet pics of downtown OKC.

Well, some big things have been happening in Norman! Elder Schroeder and I have been working hard together and we are seeing some great things come out of it. We had a lesson with this man named George Herning, who is married to a member. We have been trying to get in with this family for MONTHS! We finally were able to get in with them and we got to know his stand in the church. He presented how frustrated he was with missionaries in the past. He felt as if they were treating him as a number because of how fast they wanted him to progress to baptism. He says" I just want to learn." So we promised him that we will go through all the lessons plainly and simply so he can know what we are all about. We hope that during that process he will be able to make a decision because what I have heard from a lot of people, members or missionaries, is that he is very non commital. What we are just grateful for with all of this is that we have finally been able to meet with him. He comes to church every week and has a huge history with meeting with missionaries, so we always knew he would be a good one to try and teach, and after months, we finally did, and we are going to be doing so more regularly.

We are also meeting with this man named Matt once again. We met with him when we first got here, but a few things happened with him so we had to give him some time, and after months later we had the prompting to go see how he was doing. Apparently, he had strong feelings towards the church when he was meeting with missionaries and when we stopped meeting with him, he felt hurt that the church had put him aside and so his respect for it lowered by an abundant amount. He said as we've been back twice now that his respect is back up. At this point he pretty much knows everything about the church, he's very smart. We are just focusing on the Book of Mormon, we are reading with him and giving him some things to read as we meet with him. Hopefully things will turn out with him as we do that. We have also been able to set forth our plan with some of the members as well, and that has led to some referrals. This young man in the church is dating someone who's a nonmember and he wants her to be learning about the church. He asked her and she said YES! Hopefully we can that going this upcoming week. There was that plus many more referrals that the members have been giving us to go and check in on. We also started teaching this guy named CJ. He's 17, and we found him looking for a member who hasn't been seen in YEARS. In fact, it was very scary trying to track this member down. He lived in a trailer home in the middle of nowhere. It was 8 at night, we were with a member named Brother Nelson, and as we were approaching the door, we saw a dog chain and right after that caught our eye, we heard extremely loud growling, like a bear was going to attack us. We looked a little closer and saw no dog attached to the chain, so that scared us a little more. We bravely approached the door and knocked and the first thing we asked the person that answered was, where is the dog? Luckily, it was inside. We asked for Charles and this 17 year old boy comes out. He has the same name, but he likes being called CJ. Apparently his dad, who was the person we were looking for, left him when he was 2. We thought he would be bitter with us coming to his door, but he was very curious as to what we were doing. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he loved the idea. We got his number, so hopefully we will make it back out there, as long as we don't get attacked by his dog.

Well, the week was good!! I loved it so much! We hope to have continual success as we enter the last full week of the transfer. We receive news for this upcoming transfer this Saturday so I wonder what will happen! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!!

1-5) Our trip up to OKC

6) Bye Spanish Elders!