White Christmas!

Well, We had an awesome Christmas here in Ashland, KY. On Christmas Eve, we went to a members for lunch and that was our only traditional meal for the Holiday season. And we found 5 new investigators that day! Thats more then what we've found in the past few weeks! That night, we went to the apartment of a couple other Elders who cover Ashland on Bike(we cover Flatwoods, Russell and Ironton by car) and opened presents that we bought for each other. I got a pocket watch and its suuuuuper cool! I pretty love it. They spent the night over at our apartment and we all opened our presents that we got from family and friends.

Santa was kind enough to get me a GPS and an awesome blanket and of course, good music, along with candy and food. Mmmmmm! We went over to a members house for Christmas breakfast and they made Biscuits and Gravy. Not just any gravy either, but CHOCOLATE GRAVY. It was sooo good. I wanted the recipe but its a family secret, and I'd have to marry a guy to get it. haha. An hour later we went to another members house for lunch and one of their sons works at the MTC and loved having us there. He's constantly talking about missionary work and stuff and he gave us some super sweet ideas to try with member missionary work, which we're super excited for. We then called our families and got to talk to them for about 40 minutes and I found that I had a lot to say. It was great!

A few hours later, we found ourselves at our bishops house eating a normal dinner and stuff, and that was pretty much it. We watched the Joy to the World DVD a couple times with members or investigators. Since then, not much has happened. I can't wait to go teach one of the new investigators we found tomorrow. His name is Brad Lyon, and he knows some of the members. He let us in quick and at first said there was the bible and only the bible, but by the end of the lesson we gave him a Book of Mormon and he invited us to come back and possibly teach him and his family the next lesson. He also introduced us to his family and so we're pretty excited. :D

Well, til next week!

Elder Shain Wiederholt
1125 St Christopher Dr #48
Russell, KY 41169

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

As I'm pretty sure everyone knows, this Saturday is Christmas and I'm soo excited! We dont get to go home, but we are spedning Christmas with several families and sharing Christmas messages with them all, as well as going Caroling in Huntington, WV. It's gonna be a ton of fun. Also, we're gonna be able to call our families that day so that will be sweet.

Not much has been happening because of the Holidays. Everyone's super busy and so we have plenty of people to go visit after the New Year, but as of right now our teaching pool is low, and we're stuck wearing our pajamas or long-johns under our pants and 2 or more pairs of socks while we tract several hours a day. Also, it seems like several people over have died all at the same time, Portsmouth, just North-West of us, had a Baptism on the 12th, and then that man died just 4 days later. It was crazy. Then we tracted into a lady that same day he died, and talked with her boyfriend at that time. Well, her boyfriend died that night and we found out the next day when we came to visit her for our appointment. THEN, another lady we're trying to go teach had an uncle pass away yesterday, so she asked for a couple days to grieve a bit. Well, we're pretty easy going in the holiday season and so We'll probably visit her after wards.

We're loving the mission life, especially since Elder Moen and I have both have had some sweet food sent to us. I had Nueskees Bacon and Burgers sent to me and we haven't had that good of a burger in a long time, and Elder Moen's sister sent him Cougar Gold Cheese from WSU(maybe? wherever the Cougars are in Washington). Good, good stuff.

Well, I'm always looking forward to letters from friends and family, so don't feel shy to send stuff. I haven't really taken too many pictures lately so their is none to send today.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

~Elder Shain C. Wiederholt

1125 St Christopher Dr #48
Russell, KY 41169

It snowed!

Again...Last night we got 2 inches of snow and have gotten 2 more since. We're pretty excited to go play in it. Not much has really happened in the past week. We have been tracting a ton cause we only have a couple investigators at the moment and nothing is too promising. We've probably been tracting a good 5 or 6 hours a day for the past couple days. We're setting a goal to loan out 7 copies of the Book of Mormon a day so that'll help out a bit. We've got some followup appointments to try out later on today so thats good. We were going through our former investigators and discovered that Billy Rae Cyrus' brother was taught one upon a time! We swung by to check up on him and to see if he might've been interested but he wasn't home. He lives really close to us! haha.

On the bright side, we had a baptism on saturday! His name is Aung Htoo(two). He's from Burma and is super cool. He has a great spirit around him constantly and his smile is proof of that. Theres a picture attached of us with him. Unfortunately, he's not smiling :(

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone out West!

~Elder Wiederholt

Elder Shain C Wiederholt
1125 St Christopher Dr #48
Russell, KY 41169

Transfer Week!

Well this week was Transfer week, and I didnt get transfered, thankfully. I really like Ashland, the people are great and I rather enjoy being the District Leaders companion. This transfer we get to do 4 exchanges with other missionaries which is always really fun cause I get to leave my area to go help other elders teach their investigators and learn from them and at the same time, teach them! I love it! Our area definitely is not a dead area.

We, in fact, had to split our area in two cause we were covering too big of an area with soo many investigators all over the place. So we just got two new Bike elders in the city of Ashland, and we just cover Russell, Flatwoods, Ironton, Coalgrove, Worthington, Greenup, Wortland, etc etc etc. Haha. The other elders are Elder Hilton from Logandale, NV and Elder Muirbrook from North Ogden, UT.

We also unfortunately lost half of our investigators, but we're gonna build em back up soon. The point is so that we can double the work in a smaller area anyways. Theres not much else thats gone on. OH! Its been snowing for the past 4 days. Its apparently super unusual out here to snow this early, and stick. It's been sticking for 3 days and its snowing now too! :D

I've decided that I dont really want anything physical for Christmas except Christmas cards, pictures and letters from Friends and Family. Especially pictures :D

Til next week!

~Elder Wiederholt

1125 St Christopher Dr #48

Russell, KY 41169

Its only been, what, 4 days??

Ok, first off, what kind of idiot tries to blow up Pioneer Square? Like really? I was eating lunch in the Cafeteria at the Hospital we volunteer at, said my prayer, looked up and the TV had a picture of Pioneer Square and said "Tree Lighting Bomb Plot Foiled." I jumped up and yelled WHAT in the middle of the Cafeteria. I was pretty bumbed for the last day or so cause of it. If I lost friends I probably wouldn't find out until I got home and tried calling them to hang out or something, and that wouldn't be good. Theres another Elder from Astoria that I told, and he did the same thing over the phone. Pssh.

Well, not much has happened over the past few days. We came a across a super legit couple. Theyre not married yet, and she's due on May 2nd with his baby, but she told us she wants to be married in the Church the day after we met them. theyre great. Super knowledgable too.

Also, one of our investigators owns the Longest Boa in possession in America. He's gonna feed it today a 24 pound rabbit. We're pretty excited to see it. haha, Boys will be boys! It has its own sealed room, with windows that we'll watch it from. And the rabbit will already be dead. He's not inhumane to the animal.

In a couple pictures we took at members homes during thanksgiving. One is of Bro Boyd and his grandson. Another is of Elder Moen and I. Another is of Elder Rish(in the Portsmouth area, and in our district) doing a backflip. Another is of the Snake, whose name is Jade.

We're doing really good as an area. We have one baptism set for the 11th, and we're doing so good that we had to split our Area. There are going to be bike Elders in the City of Ashland, and we're gonna have the truck so we can still do work in the country and the smaller towns in the area. We did lose a couple of our investigators though. Oh well, Im sure the other elders will do fine!

Oh! I've decided that for Christmas, I'd like friends and family to just send me Christmas cards with a letter and picture of them. That would be awesome! :D

Til next time!

Finally a Pday!

Sorry I havent emailed for awhile. We had our last pday monday before last, and then since today was a holiday and the President wanted to minimalize tracting and teaching as much as possible today, we had pday today. :/ But! We're doing great! I'm now the designated driver for our area, and so as such I had to drive to Huntington last Wednesday and then Charleston the next morning, which is a little over an hour away. By the way, Ohio drivers over arent good at all. Just in case you didnt know. We went to Charleston to see a General Authority speak to us. He's Greg Christiansen of the Quorem of the 70. It was waaay cool. And then afterward, he asked to interview me about the mission! It was a really cool experiance talking with him one-on-one.

Other then that were just teaching as much as we can. We're trying our best to place at least one Book of Mormon a day, and besides today, we're right on track. We tracted into a woman last week named Kirby. She's got a 6 year old daughter, Dakota, who's really cool. We've been having trouble setting up a return appointment, but we're excited to teach her.

We're working hard! OOH! I was in a parade the other day! We do service at a hospital next to where we live and they asked us if we could help carry a giant american flag in the Christmas parade. It reminded me of the good ol' days, for sure. There was a lot of people, kinda like the Rose parade or Macy's parade in Portland, but it was only like a mile long.

Sorry its so short today, but we're about to eat at a member's house and my companion needs to do his thing too. Til monday!

~Elder Wiederholt

Boooooring week

Well, like the title s uggests, we had a reeeally boring week this week. We had good numbers for a change, though. We had an investigator at church yesterday! We were super stoked about it. Also, it was a Primary program so all the little kids at church were able to teach basic, simple doctrine and it was great! Elder Moen and I were asked to come up and sing a song with them, the conductor had a suuper cheesy smile though and I started to laugh a bit and my voice cracked. Hahaha. We also taught a Nazarene Preacher on wednesday, AT his church. It was an interesting experiance.

Also, we found a legit family. They own a local towing company and whenever they get a call they go as a family. The kids are homeschooled and they are seriously an awesome family. The only problem that theyre trying to get over right now is how we used to practice polygamy. :/ Nonetheless, I've definitely been learning a lot since I came out here to the East about one month ago! Lots to do and people to teach.

In the pictures, I saw an orange tree with some blue sky and so I took its picture. I couldn't help myself. Then theres one of Elder Moen with a suuper short tie and we thought it was pretty funny. Theres one of my desk, which was kinda messy when I took it. I have pictures and cards that I've gotten from friends and stuff on the wall, along with sticky notes with scriptures and quotes. Sister missionaries used to stay in our apartment, and they left a lot of stuff behind including this purple photo album with flowers on it. I found it and w as like YES! hahaha Gotta keep things interesting, you know?

I also took a picture of the cool fog this morning, and then one of the porch area below our apartment. Our neighbor has a huge drinking problem, essentially. Thats all from yesterday and today. Its all he does, is drink, starting early in the morning until late at night. I here him drop a can about every 5-15 minutes during my study time. We can't do much about it, cause we're encouraged not to talk to anyone living in the same complex as us, for safety reasons.

Its interesting, to say the least. We're going to a thrift store today and we're gonna look for a cheap keyboard to buy so we can practice our piano playing a bit during lunch and dinner and stuff. I'm lovin it!

~Elder Wiederholt

Keeping on the work!

Another great week, as always. I think I've figured out a cycle of how bad weeks and good weeks come about. They seem to just take turns. Haha, it really keeps things interesting. We're really trying hard to work with the member lately. Tracting hasnt exactly been turning out too hot, so we figured there was a reason for that and decided to try something else. Our ward is seriously like three-fourths inactive, so we're going through each of the "cities" in our area every weekend and trying to get back in contact with the Less Actives or Inactive Members. Some success, but most of the time people arent even home, or not LDS anymore. We came across a lady who became Jewish recently.

..

We haven't had too many members feeding us this last week, and also dont really have any this week, but the good news is that it forces us to learn how to cook better. We had our district sleep at our apartment two nights ago because we had Zone Conference yesterday and just carpooled nice and early to Huntington. It was easier on the miles for everyone that way. Either way, they DESTROYED my kitchen! I made it all clean and pretty and cleaned the Microwave for the first time in what was probably months. If my manager at DQ saw what it was before I cleaned it, I would be in sooooo much trouble. So I cleaned the kitchen, and now its dirty again, and so I have to clean it again. The next step is the bathrooms. Not that theyre bad, but they just need to be cleaned. Then the other rooms. It's sort of ironic how organized I like the house to be, when my study desk is an utter disaster.

OH. Elder Moen and I have to go on exchanges every week with another companionship in the district cause Elder Moen is the District Leader, so I get to go teach all over the place. I was in Huntington last week with one of our Zone Leaders and we drove through Marshall University! I love that movie! Also, in the beginning of the movie when theyre in the theater, I found that theater. Oooh snap. The Elder I was with, Elder Stanovich, is from Astoria, OR. He's pretty sweet. Everyone guessed we would get along, I wonder why? He's a convert as of two years ago and is incredibley knowledgable. He reminds me a lot of my good friend Anthony Henry for more than one reason. Hahaha. Talks like him, walks like him and has the same interests in art and stuff. He doesnt complain nearly as much, amongst other things, but I still love them both. Great people. haha.

This next week we're quite busy. I'm going to help out in the Olive Hill Branch tomorrow for our exchanges. Of course everything interesting that can happen is happening when I'm gone. Elder Moen and the other Elder have been invited to discuss with a Nazarene Minister and have lunch with him. Can't wait to see how that turns out.

Well, I forgot we have to do a survey, til next week!

~Elder Wiederholt

1125 St Christopher Dr #48

Russell, KY 41169

Green never breaks

Well, while I've been out here I've definitely learned a lot. First day I was out here I said I was green and the member said "Well, the green stick never breaks." He had no idea where that came from, but we love how wise it was! Also, in church I finally met the ward and stuff and when I was introducing myself in priesthood I said I was green and someone said that I was the greenest thing out here! Hahahaha. Thanks to Fall its true, all the trees are now barren :/ but I did get some pictures of the pretty leaves!

We're definitely experiancing God's hand in our work. We had to clean out all the old food from past missionaries and found stuff that expired in 2001. We had a virtually empty kitchen. This last week we have eating with plenty of members, and the bishop and members keep bringing food over. We essentially dont have to go shopping this week! I just need Orange Juice. haha. A couple days ago we were tracting and every other house, although not interested, stood on the porch and talked with us for 5 or 10 minutes! I love those kinds of people! There was one guy who has a pet deer and we got pictures feeding it! Soooo cool!

Theres like 2 accupunturists in the ward, and both use alternative medicines and techniques. It's incredible. Bro Bea, he talks a lot about how the mind controls sickness and stuff, and he really good. Elder Moen had a headache and Bro Bea touched his arm and it went away. I'm farely certain he could touch my arm and make my bowels relax...hahahaha I'll be careful! For sure!

It turns out that most of our progressing investigators are all girls our age. Not our fault! I swear! Young people out here are all open minded, and theres not a lot of them. Mostly older people, who are all older and set in their beliefs.

I'm sending some pictures! Theres one of me feeding the deer. Then one with Elders Glenn and Weitz. Elder Glenn is from Ellensburg, WA, and Elder Weitz is from Billings MT! Oooh yea. Then we took a picture of us knocking at an abondoned house. The last one is a Van like from Scooby Doo! It was at a baptist church and had a bunch of scriptures on it.

Til next time! :D

~Shain

Elder Shain C Wiederholt
1125 St Christopher Dr #48
Russell, KY 41169

I'm here!

I PUMPED GAS TODAY.

Hahaha. I finally got here, and here isnt exactly West Virginia. My first area is in Russell, Kentucky, Home of Billy Ray Cyrus.

My companion is Elder Chris Moen, from Seattle, WA. It's been a rather hard week, but its been fun too. I really miss the guys from my district in the MTC and stuff, but we all write and stuff. This week 99% of all our appointments have fallen through so I've only met one investigater and that was through Splits, and so I taught a guy whose been being taught for the past 10 years. Elder Moen went and taught a girl and committed her to baptism which is great and all, but I really wanted to be there for it. :/ Her name is Darian and she's 16, a mother and smokes, so we have some stuff to work on before the 20th of November, but we can do it, and I'm excited :D

I'm sending some pictures of my MTC group and some other stuff. If anyone wants to send me stuff then they have to send it to the mission office and I get packages at zone conference, as far as I know anyway. Letters and stuff can be sent to:

Elder Shain Wiederholt

1125 St Christopher Dr #48

Russell, KY 41169

If anything, some nice, simple recipes would be nice. We made some Fajitas for dinner and that was good. Plus, I'm the only one of us who can actually cook, the problem is that I dont always know what to cook. I'm thinking some good ol hamburger helper.

OH. We were tracting a couple days ago, and we knocked on this lady's door and she said that she was busy making dinner and we said that it smelled really good and she let us in and fed us dinner! It was eggs, bisquits and gravy, fresh Hog bacon and sausage and fried potatoes. Sooooo good. I love the food.

Anyways, its my companions turn for the computer, til next monday!

~Shain

Second Week!

This last week has gone by incredibley fast. Next Tuesday, the 19th, we'll be leaving the MTC at 4am to fly to Detroit and then to Charleston, and get there about 3 oclock. We've been learning a lot and I had to get a tutor because apparently some survey I took said that I couldn't understand scripture well enough, but it really helped me get ahead in memorizing scriptures and explaining them to investigators. Theres another district next to our classroom with more kids going to Charleston, including 3 sisters and 2 more elders. Elder Glenn and Elder Wiess, then Sister Badger, Sister Lowe and then one more sister whose name escapes me. They're all pretty cool although I haven't had much of a chance to talk to the sisters yet.

Last week we went to the Temple and I learned a lot and all that cool stuff, but I got really excited when the guy at the front desk asked where I was from because I reminded him of his grandson. I told him Portland and he asked if I knew Napoleon Dynamite and I said that I knew of him. That man is John Heders Grandfather. Mind blown.

We've been doing a lot of roleplaying and stuff and its really fun to try out different personalities and really test some elders here. Elder Seymour tends to always pretend he's smoking or drink, so with him we always practice saying "sorry sir, maybe another time."

The food is good, and it really doesnt give tons of gas. I guess it depends on what you eat and drink, but when we do have it, its usually at night when we're getting ready for bed and we all just laugh about it. It's fun to experiance our inner childhood again. haha

In our lessons we've been learning about questions of the soul like "Who's God?" "Where do I come from, what am I doing here and Where am I going?" as well and other like "How does the gospel apply to me and my family?" I'm getting really good with scriptures for everything including these and I love discussions when I just keep em coming. So awesome. Next thing I gotta work on is my humility since I've always had a problem with it.

In the MTC, we're not able to hook up a card reader to these computers and send home pictures, but for sure when I get out in the field. I'm sure it'll be much easier then.

Til next time!

~Shain

Elder Shain Wiederholt

MTC Mailbox #157

WV- CHAR 1019

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604

First week!

So this was my first week at the MTC in Provo. We started out on Wednesday witthh meeting our companions in our district, and they're all cool guys. We have 9 in our district, 3 of us are going to Everett, WA and the rest are all going to Charleston with me. I apologize striaght off for not emailing sooner, our preperation day is on Thursday, not including the thursday after we got here. My companion is Elder Jesse Johnson from Bluffdale, UT. He's an awesome guy and he can really teach, but he's kinda shy otherwise unless we're all together in the group. My room mates are Elder Whitehead from Vegas and Elder Rhea(Ray) from Magna. They're both really fun to be around and I love hanging out with them before bed. In the district, my district leader is Elder Taylor McBride. He looks a lot like the guy in ''Remember the Titans" who was paralyzed. He's also the youngest of all of us. His companions are Elder Barry and Elder Seymour. Elder Barry is from Electriicc City, WA and is a great guy with a big heart, even though he says some pretty questionable stuff sometimes. We love him anyway. Elder Seymour is from New Zealand and is quite a guy. He's really funny, especially when he makes fun of his understanding of American Culture. today, he went off on why we can flip-flops just that. He can also turn anything in a discussion around into something positive. He's going to Everett and we're all going to miss him dearly. The other two going there are Elder Chase Amos and Elder Taylor Kordsiemon(cords-men). Elder Amos is going to be a comedian someday whether he likes it or not, and Elder Kordsiemon wants to go into the Army. We're all so different that when we met everthing just clicked and we're all the best of friends.

I personally can't wait to go to West virginia and start teaching. Elder Johnson and I both work together well in our roleplaying and teaching appointments. General Conference last sunday was one of the most spiritual times that I've ever experianced, I actually felt my eyes water for once, which has never happened. And it happened twice! During a talk by Holland and a talk by President Monson. Other then that we are either eating, showering, in or studying, all day long.

Til next week!

~Shain

Elder Shain Wiederholt

MTC mailbox #157

VW CHAR 1019

2005 N 900 E

Provo UT 84604

Last Good Byes

Well, I've essentially said goodbye to all my friends and family now. I will be leaving on the plane tomorrow morning, with the plane leaving at 10:10am and arriving in Salt Lake City at 1. I'll be having dinner with my sister Carrie, but I dont know what else I will end up doing tomorrow.

I already miss Portland. It's a beautiful city filled with people that are impossible to find elsewhere. I know for a fact I will feel the same way about West Virginia when I fly home in two years.

My missionary email is shain.wiederholt@myldsmail.net

my first mailing address in the MTC is:

Elder Shain Carlton Wiederholt
MTC Mailbox # 157
WV-CHAR 1019
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

God Speed,

Elder Wiederholt

First Post, intros and blah blah blog

Welcome everyone, to my blog which will be documenting my mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I got my call on July 6th, 2010 to serve in the West Virginia, Charleston Mission for two years. I will report to the MTC in Provo on the 29th of September, 2010.

Now that Ive done the formal talking part, I wanna be able to write some about myself, how I am right now. I just finished a year of school at PCC and since most of my friends from high school went off to universities around the country, I had no choice but to make friends with other new people, all of whom were still in school and are just not leaving for college. I hope to keep in contact with all of them, and I wish them the best two years. When I get back, I plan to go to PCC for one more year and try out for an internship at Wieden and Kennedy in Portland. If that doesnt work out, then I will attend BYU in the fall and major in advertising and journalism with a focus in photo-journalism. When I get back, my hopes are that my job at DQ will still be around so I can have a paycheck available to me when I come home. By "around" I mean hopefully they wont be out of business. :/ Tough times!

Hopefully my little sister will be keeping up this blog with emails or letters that I send home. Over the next month or so I will be posting mailing addresses and emails and such. Thanks everyone for following!

~Shain