Tough week

Like the title suggests, this weeks been a tough one. We're working hard and trying to keep positive, but theres always seems to be a wall in the way. We didnt have much go through this week. But we found 3 new investigators this week which hasnt happened in a while! And the Ashland Elders had a baptism on saturday!

Work here is just slow, but it hasn't stopped, so we're still pushing forward. I'm also gonna blame the winter. Too often are we tracting and people say that they wont talk to us cause its cold out. Though they could just let us for a minute, they don't. Their is not much we can do with
that, it is their God given choice.

I've decided to do something for President and Sister Thornock before they leave, and that's draw them this awesome picture of Jesus Christ looking out over Jerusalem, but instead of Jerusalem I'm gonna draw Charleston. It'll be sweet. Can't wait. Also, since we didn't have too many dinners with members this week, we're resorting to cooking more often and I get to experiment a bit. It's sweet. We really need to stop eating out though, its killing my money.

I'm sending a couple pictures as well. One is of a sign for Drive through Alcohol, which we all think is interesting. Another is a pretty sweet Marquee we found at a car shop. One with elder Moen and I with some Marshall shirts we got at goodwill. One of Elder Kelsch and I, and then one of my thumb right after it got busted up two weeks ago. It's no longer nearly as bad, but it still hurts to grip some stuff.

Til next time!

~Elder Wiederholt

1125 St Christopher Dr #48

Russell, KY 41169

Lifes going good

Well, Elder Moen has left me this week for Buena Vista, VA and has been replaced with Elder Kelsch. He has been out for 6 months, and recently served in Elkins, WV. He's from Alpine, UT. He also loves baseball, and is hoping to play professionally when he gets home. He's a good elder, but we have our problems to work out over the next 3 weeks, just like any other new companionship would have to. We're excited to do the work though, and know that we're gonna rock Russell UPSIDE DOWN!

We played some basketball last Pday, and I jammed my thumb pretty bad. My entire hand is bruised, and it hurts to grab anything, or tie my tie or anything like that. Needless to say, its getting better and I'm still able to work. I didnt need any sort of bandage or cast or anything. That and transfers are pretty much the most exciting thing that I've done this week. We're trying to figure out our approach to the area. I'm very much into tracting, and was tracting as much as 6-8 hours a day with Elder Moen. Elder Kelsch did mostly less-active work, and doesnt want to go tracting more than an hour a day. It's kinda hard for me to do that, since we're running low on miles, and theres a lot to tract still in our area, and with that a lot of people who haven't had that opportunity yet.

Oh! the snow has melted! YES!!!!

Sorry that not much has happened this week, til next time! :D

~Elder Shain Wiederholt

1125 St Christopher Dr #48
Russell, KY 41169

Seriously? Ducks? Are you serious?

We had an investigator text us in the middle of the night last night to tell us that the Ducks lost. Really? Oooh man. It's ok though, cause it has nothing to do with my nor anyone else's eternal salvation :?)

I just realized the question mark looks like a funny nose on the smiley face. Anyways! Transfers tomorrow! I'm staying here, and Elder Moen is going to Buena Vista to be a Zone Leader, and he's only been out for 9 months. He's pretty excited, and scared at the same time. Mostly excited to be around such a large concentration of members, but all those girls are still off limits on his mission, so thats its too bad for him. I'm glad that I'm not going around all that temptation. An Elder named Elder Kelsch is coming here from Elkins, WV tomorrow. No one knows anything about him, so I'm nervous. He's been there since he came out in July, so I guess we'll see. I bet we're gonna tear it up out here though.

We've been having a rough week in terms of tracting and such. We've been let in a couple doors, which is great, but so far not many return appointments are going on. We've tracted into a Community of Christ member, which used to be the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints. We dont really know how to go about teaching her cause we have to essentially convert her to Brigham Young and everyone past him. Also, we're teaching the brother of Billy Ray Cyrus now, along with his wife. They're both really cool, and really like us. From what we've heard from people is that Billy isnt as good as his brother at guitar or singing, but he just got the lucky break. I'm excited for them though, theyre really great people.

Things have really been settling down lately too. Rob, whose wife just left him like 3 days after Christmas, and after 16 years of being together, is starting to realize that he's done some bad things and that he needs to change. We were about to drop him cause he wasn't keeping his commitments, but he's been reading frequently now, so we're holding onto him for a little longer to see how much he'll progress. If he chooses to join then great, but he needs to get his priorities straight first.

It's snowing again. We called something called tellme and they researched a couple forcasts for the area. one said 2-4 inches, one said 3-4 inches, and then one said 6-9. Yea, I hope not, but we'll see!

Well, thats all I really have this week. Love y'all and hope to hear from y'all soon!

~Elder Shain C. Wiederholt

1125 St Christopher Dr #48

Russell, KY 41169

Happy New Year!

Well, this year has already started out with some doosies. We found a sweet family on Christmas Eve, but a couple days later one of them went online and studied Anti til 5 in the morning, so they dropped us. That son and his dad are coming to play basketball with us and the other missionaries in the district today, though, so that's good! We're going to keep a mutual friendship between us and that family and hopefully something comes of them some day. Also, another investigator, Rob(the one who owns a 24ft long Boa) was left by his wife just a couple days after Christmas, and so he's not happy at all either. He's really not progressing anymore and so he might not be willing to let us come back after a while. THEN. Chris and Andrea. Where to begin.

We met them a couple months ago through a referal from some members, the Sturgills. We taught them and Chris was pretty darn golden. As we went along, we learned that Andrea, who claimed to be due with Chris's baby in May, wasn't actually pregnant. Also, the Sturgills got her a job house cleaning with a lady that's never had anything come up missing. Well, since Andrea was hired, suddenly a total of $8,380 and 3 rings have been found stolen, but neither have showed up yet. Chris found all this out and supposedly dropped her off at a homeless shelter. That's not even the weird part. Last night, we went over to Chris's house to bring him a couch since he has no furniture. He's renting the house for free as long as he fixes up the house. Well, we were there, and some pretty weird stuff was apparent, and so through a series of phone calls, we learned that Andrea was actually hiding in the closet upstairs, which Chris said was broken and wouldn't open, but Elder Moen tried opening it and it opened a couple inches, then shut back up. As the night progressed, we have learned that Chris might be getting dealt drugs through his landlord, and some of those drugs along with possible stolen merchandise are in that house, which Chris locked up and then drove off. Its a tough situation, but luckily, we're out of it, and have dropped them like a rock.

In other news, we have an investigator whose got diabetes really bad, and when he took off his sock, a chunk of meat from his foot came off about the size of a quarter. He's lost 3 toes before this. He also refuses to go to the doctor to be treated cause he doeskin wanna lose his foot.

Elder Moen and I did build a snowman nativity though! Its sweet! I'm sending the pictures! Also, I hit my first deer. I was only going about 15 mph so it didn't cause any damage to us, but the deer might have a concussion. Those are my highlights. Transfers are a week from this Wednesday, so we'll see what happens. We think that Elder Moen might be leaving and I'll end up staying. The Zone Leaders were asking if I thought I'd be ready for District leader, so I don't know. Its not their choice, but they can give input to President Thornock for sure.

With Love,
Elder Wiederholt

1125 St Christopher Dr #48
Russell, KY 41169