wahoo!

Well, I have only like 2 days until I fly out. Not to be too trunky or anything. Haha, there's not a whole lot to talk about.

 

Elder Butler and I had a great weekend though. We were asked by someone to shoot their wedding last saturday. I borrowed some camera gear from a member and we had a great time! It was definitely an interesting form of service. She's going to be getting baptized in November. Also we had a baptism on Sunday! Michaela Wheeler, and she had a ton of family and other friends there. It was great to see sooooo many people there to support her! It's quite the way to finish a mission, to have a baptism and go to a wedding of a girl that's going to get baptized here soon. Soo awesome!

 

Love ya!

 

~Elder Wiederholt

Fwd: counting down!

 

I hope yall can forgive me for not writing a whole lot. I'll see mostly everyone here shortly.

 

Things are going ok. Just trying to survive the next 9 days. We have baptism on the 30th. It's definitely an awesome way to end a mission. Other then that, things are pretty much all the same.

 

We had stake conference, and we gave a couple other missionaries a ride to it. Here's a picture of all of us in the car wearing our funky sunglasses. Also, Elder Allred last week after doing emails was giving himself a haircut. The gaurd on the razor came off and got a good streak of baldness, and so I took a picture of it. I hope yall enjoy!

 

 Love yall!

 

~Elder Wiederholt

comin on up!

Unfortunately nothing too exciting this week. Just pushing through to the end! Also, Michaela Wheeler reset her baptismal date for Sept30th, so I'll be here for it! YES! I thought I was gonna miss it!

Love yall! See yall in Oregon in 17 days!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

Rockin Vista!

Pictures of some of our eating pursuits. Elder Butler and I like to eat. And if we get bored, then we make up new things, like Mac and cheese sandwiches. Oh yea baby! Also, for his birthday last monday, we agreed to go to Wendys to celebrate. It's quite the birthday present. haha!

 

Things this week were ok. We were able to teach a lot for whats average for the mission. We were asked by our mission president and the stake president to teach 17 lessons a week. There's a priority though, where member presents with an investigator, other lessons with an investigator, less active/recent convert lessons, and then active member lessons. It's a new concept teaching the active members, but we gave it a shot this week and we really learned a lot about teaching to needs. Of course these people all ready know the gospel, and most of them did missions themselves, but we were able to really bring the spirit, and it was great! That, and we were able to get 17 lessons. It was nice!

Unfortunately there was some bad news this week. The girl that is supposed to be baptized on sunday is having some crazy trials. Her dad, who has lung cancer and other health troubles was just admitted into the hospital a couple days ago. The doctors found 3 tumors in his brain. We're praying crazy hard for them, and will likely be fasting for them as well. We're not supposed to have people back home participate in special fasts, but if everyone could keep the Wheeler family, especially Mike, the father, in their prayers, that would be great. Because of this unforseen event, the baptism will very likely be pushed back, and I might not be here for it. But thats ok, because it's really not about me being here, as long as it happens, and Michaela pushes through those trials. Theyre tough, and I can relate to almost losing a parent. We're going to be doing a lot of service for them coming up, because the own a farm, and need some help maintaining it.

 

I had a meeting with one of the art directors here about a possible art scholarship. He said that I'm definitely getting one, but he doesnt know how much yet. He really liked my work, and said that I'm really going to help the school and students to grow as well. I'm really excited to come here and get to work. It's going to be great. Thankfully I'm not in the student wards. Keeping my blinders on would be incredibly hard, and it's already hard enough with the campus being in our area, and making up a good chunk of the town. I'm really trying to build good relationships with members here while I'm here though. That way I can really have some friends and people to go to for support during the tough college times. It's a good thing that half of the families in these wards are newly married couples, and theyre my age. That way it's a lot more comfortable.

 

Well, thats pretty much it. I'm trying my best to work hard! I promise!

 

Love,

 

Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Labor day alright!

So much for a break! haha just kidding!

 

Happy Labor day! We got so lucky to find the SVU library open today! It's pretty great.

 

Things are going great! Michaela Wheeler is gearing up for Baptism on the 16th, and all we hav eto do is finish teaching a couple more things. We're going to go over to her family's place tonight for Family Home Evening and just get to know everyong a little bit better. Nothing better than playing a game of Life!

 

We went to a little Labor day parade before coming here. It was really little like maybe 20 minutes long. But that's ok. They had a swing bagpipe marching band from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. They also fit a good 90% of the SVU student population into a long section of the parade where students just cheered and stuff. We went to just make a presence, and not to really do anything. The SVU kids saw us, and started yelling Elders! And before you know it, everyone and their mother was looking at us. Haha! It was funny, a little awkward, but funny.

 

Today is purge day, so we have to go spend essentially our entire pday cleaing the apartment, which we did on Transfer day. woot. That includes shampooing the carpet and throwing out a ton of stuff that's been collected by missionaries for years. Fortunately, did most of it two weeks ago, now today, we just have to clean the floors and the bathroom.

 

Everything else that's been happening has essentially been the same. Not a whole lot of exciting stuff going on. I'm still rockin my studies. I've memorized about 85 scriptures in the last 3 months or so, and I'm hoping to get to 100 by the time I come home. It shouldn't be too hard. It's just one scripture every other day, and when I'm trying to do one a day, it gets pretty easy to do. I'm hopefully going to finish the Book of Mormon for the 5th time on my mission as well before I return home. I'm marking all the scriptures that talk about Faith. Next I'm going to do knowledge. Then I'm going to do the rest of the Christ-like attributes.

 

Well sweet, Love ya fam!

 

~Elder Wiederholt

woohoo

Well Family and friends, I have officially applied to Southern Virginia University. We'll see how this goes. If all is well, I'd be starting the spring term in early 2013. I'll be able to return home for a few months, then I guess I'd be heading back out here. The one downside is that I've been away from family and friends for two years already, and within a few months, I'd be back where I was stuck for two years. It'll be good though. I'm getting more and more excited. And there's nothing like living down the street from my future college, and many of the members that I eat with or associate with are people that I'll be working with later too!

 

This week is going great! We taught so much last week. Also, about a year ago, I told my mission president that I wanted to see 6 more people get baptized while I've been out. Well, I told me companion that I haven't seen any since that goal was made, and then we were both just like why not this transfer! So we're shooting for 6 baptisms this transfer. That hasn't happened in a long time in the WVCM. Also, we already have one coming up on the 16th. This cool girl named Michaela. She's 16, and here parents are coming back to church for the first time in like 25 years. It's soo awesome. A lot of members are just like finally! but I guess its all about planting those seeds! We're also teaching a few other people that should be baptized this transfer or at least a week into next. We have two wards to work with, so it's definitely possible. Especially since this is like the promised land of the mission.

 

Elder Butler is sa-weet. We have so much fun. We're both running kind of low on food right now. That's a little bit of a problem. The missionaries that left the apartment behind that we moved into left it kinda trashed and we cleaned it for a few hours on transfer day. They did leave like two dozen eggs for us though! Unfortunately, they were expired. like 4 months ago. Go figure. I shouldn't be suprised.

 

Also, an investigator(which could be baptized before I go home) is getting married on my click day(sept29). She asked me to photograph her wedding. That'll be really sweet. I got permission from President Pitt, and will be borrowing a camera from a member. I'm pretty stoked.

 

Love yall!

 

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Last transfer!

Well, tomorrow begins my last transfer, but I'm not thinking about it too much. Or at least trying not to. I am being transferred, and I'm going to be going to a neighboring area, the Rockbridge area in Buena Vista. I'll be covering the Rockbridge and Buena Vista Family wards, and will actually be able to work within BV now. I'm pretty excited. I get to stay in such an awesome place, be around some awesome missionaries, and finish my mission with a great missionary! His name is Elder Neal Butler, and he's from Chicago, IL. He's been out for about a year and a half now, and I've gotten to know him really well over the course of my mission. I've been his Zone Leader a couple times, and I've been on several exchanges with him in the past. I love Elder Butler!

Things in Lexington are going good! I'm really sad to leave this ward. I love the members here so much! But BV and Rockbridge will be great too! I'm still gonna be working closely with a lot of students, of W+L, VMI and SVU. In Lexington though, we have had a couple good interactions this week with investigators and stuff. We had another good lesson with a guy named Sammy Moore. His choice to investigate is really a suprise to a lot of people, because he's apparently really non-commital and stuff, but he has kept all the commitments that we've asked him to do! He's cool, but he might be dropping us soon. We feel like he might be at least. :/

Also, we tried a former investigator, and he wasnt home again, but we talked to his daughter, and had a good conversation with her. We gave her a Book of Mormon, and she said that her family just quit their church because of politics and they want it to truly be about Christ. We did invite the family to come to church, but theyre going to be busy for a couple weekends.

It's really sad though that we havent seen the success that we had hoped for while I was here. But We worked way hard, and I absolutely love this ward!

Elder Shain C Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314