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