Merry Christmas!!

So first things first, We're going to be making our calls at 3:45 on Christmas, so thats about 1:45 Pacific time. Thats the Plan at least, because Elder Dumke's parents need us to call before 4:30 our time.

So, we've had an awesome week! We've seen so many miracles all around us. It seems that everyday we come across someone that's incredibly prepared for what we have to share with them. We're very excited for all these people who are so humble and just willing to listen. Heavenly Father is truly blessing us with success so far.

Elder Dumke is so awesome. He could very well become one of my favorite companions, if not thee favorite. We work really well together, and get along great. He's really laid back, but very diligent in the work and so we keep very busy. I sure do love this kid! He rocks! He's from Salt Lake City, and is really tall. The weirdest thing is that he's the shortest of his 2 brothers and his dad. It's so crazy looking at a picture of him and his dad, because it looks like a normal picture. I mean most dads are taller than their sons, right? Well then I realized that not only is Elder Dumke 6'4" but his dad is 6'7"! Oh snap! I love him to death though.

We have a rockin zone this transfer. Everyone is absolutely solid. We have an area that's been struggling pretty bad, but they got a solid missionary there this transfer. Unfortunately they can't work right now, because he unexpectedly had an Appendicitis attack last night, and had surgery right away last night. They haven't had any chance to really work. It really stinks, cause that missionary really rocks! I love that guy!

Well, not too much else to mention. We're all really excited for Christmas. We got some giant bags of gifts from the Relief Society yesterday at church(All 6 of the missionaries in the ward got them!) filled with everything from deodorant and body wash, to blocks of cheese and candy bars. We would've waited for Christmas, but there was food, and it would've been an interesting experience with the cheese. haha! We're way excited for the Zone Christmas Party on Friday, when everyone gets gifts from the mission and their parents and letters and what not. The mission has been holding mail the past month for this, so thats why I haven't gotten a chance to write anyone. :/

Well I sure do love yall! I hope you have a wonderful week before Christmas!

~Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston WV 25314

So far no snow! :D

Sorry I didn't get a chance to email yesterday, because tomorrow is transfers, and so we have pday on tuesday instead. Elder Stoker is being transferred to a small town of about 500 people in Floyd, VA. He's training, and is taking the area over from sister missionaries. He's way excited for it. My new companion is Elder Dumke, who is just as tall, and weighs just as much as I do. Haha. He's a stud though. He's been out for about 11 months, and has trained twice, while being a district leader at the same time. I'm really excited for this next transfer because we have some way sweet missionaries coming into the zone, and we're going to be playing basketball a lot on pdays. We're also getting a third companionship in the ward, out in Montgomery, WV which is the home of WVU Tech. It's a rougher area, but that's ok, the two going in there can handle themselves nicely. President is also starting to move sisters into the city areas so that they're around more members and therefore somewhat safer. The first step of that is happening in Teays valley, just about half hour away, where we're getting some sisters. They're the first in the zone for about 7.5 months.

Things are going awesome. We went and made cookies with a member and his kids. It was funny because a Taylor Swift Christmas song came onto his christmas playlist on his iPod, and Elder Stoker was kind enough to tell him and his kids about how much I like her. HA. So they all frosted cookies with things like "E.W. + T.S." which was made by an 8 year old. It was pretty funny. Thankfully I'm not the only one getting all the grief.

We're also getting things planned out for Christmas now. We don't quite know what time we'll be calling, but we're gonna get home from church probably around 2pm our time. We'll see. It's way crazy how fast time is flying by, because I swear we just had Thanksgiving!

Not a whole lot is really going on at the moment, just a lot of meetings and some craziness of transfers coming up. It's way nice to stay so busy. I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself when I get released from being a Zone Leader! I don't know what I'm going to do with myself when I get home! I can't even imagine myself not being a missionary! AHHH

Pictures are of Elder Stoker and I with a Recent Convert that we taught and was baptized in October. He recently has had some surgeries to help him get his Parkinsons under control a little more. Another is of Elder Stoker and I at a baptism from November. He's a way solid kid. Then the last is an excerpt from a book about George Washington by Glenn Beck. Apparently George Washington had a general named Wiederholdt. Sweet, huh!?

Love y'all!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

:D

So first off, we always ask members if there's any kind of service that we can help them with, and of course whenever anyone asks me what I did back home, the only thing that really stands out, if at all, is photography. We had a member ask me if I could borrow her camera and take pictures of a family for her. Then, she wanted me to do their family as well, and I've gotten them done, and now they kindly told another family that what I say at the dinner table is actually truthful and they want me to do their family pictures too. Of course, I make sure to not do it for too long, like 45 minutes a family. And on days that dont mean much for missionary work. I do love it though, and it makes me all sorts of excited to be able to have weight in my hands again. That, and a camera that zooms. :)

Anyway, I'm sending a couple pictures of the capital building that I took with that camera. One is from our apartment at sunrise. Another is later that day, after church, when the weather was getting funky.

the work was ok this week. I'm starting to get sick, which doesn't suprise me since there's been a ton of missionaries getting sick in our mission lately. It's quite unfortunate. It's just a cough, but it's wearing me out. We get home as soon as possible, plan really quick, and i crash until my Elder Stoker goes to bed, then he wakes me up and we do prayers. I'm gonna get a blessing today so that I can just get this thing knocked out quick. It's also making it hard to think of anything too exciting too.

It's weird that Elder Stoker is most likely going to be transferred in 2 weeks, because it means that we've been together for two and a half months alreaady! It's sooo crazy! Time is flying by way quick. I can't wait to kick this sickness in the butt and get back to work so that we can tear it up here in C town!

We had a good Thanksgiving, in that we ate at 3 different families homes, one of which was actually at a restuarant that their family owns, and there was like 40 people there. Also, each dinner appointment was like an hour and a half apart. I was stuffed. Could hardly walk. I have to say that it was thee most physically uncomfortable day of my mission thus far. It was all way good though, and I'm happy that we had a bit of a day off. Christmas is soon upon us, and it's going to be tough keeping the missionaries motivated during the holidays and with the cold weather coming as well. We'll keep it going strong though! :D

Love yall!

Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Dr Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

WE HAVE HAD AN AWESOME WEEK!!!!!!!!!!

It's really something that I needed. I was having a tough time for a couple weeks since we didn't have anyone to teach, but everything always seems to get better right on time. Unfortunately I wasn't in town for most of our finding, because we were on exchanges a couple times. When they found the most, I was in Beckley, WV helping them to set up a teaching pool of Less-Actives to work with. Although it was a super successful week, it was also a super stressful week. We had to arrange for the 27 missionaries in our zone to come into Charleston, including rides, places to sleep, food and places to go work for a couple hours each day. The reason being the whole mission came into Charleston to see Elder Neal L Anderson speak at Stake Conference. he spoke to just the missionaries for about 2 and a half hours, and it was great. We all got to go up and shake his hand and introduce ourselves. Over the course of the weekend, I got to meet him a couple different times. After the mission conference, we had to zoom back to our chuch building 25 miles away with 10 other missionaries in our Cargo Van(which the mission lent us for a couple days) in less than half an hour to get to our baptism on time. It went great! Sister Pitt and the sister missoinaries from Morgantown showed up randomly with an investigator and saw the baptism too. It was good to see them, since I came out with one of those sisters and havent really talked with her since. The baptism was way spiritual. His name is Lawson, and he's just 18. He was taught here by elder Stoker and Elder Jones, then moved up to Conneticut for school, where he continued taking the lessons, and flew down here for Thanksgiving and his Baptism. I hadn't even met him until that morning! Haha! Afterwards, we cleaned everything up, and got dinner. I'm pretty sure that we made Taco Bell's pay roll for the day.

After dinner, we dropped companionships on random streets to go knock doors, and we went and did some ourselves. We didn't do a whole lot, because we got let in on our first door. It was way cool to talk to someone that was as receptive as he was. We were in the same apartment complex as Charleston South, and they were let in on their first door as well. We went and picked up everyone after than, and 3 of the 4 companionships were let in, and all loaned out copies of the Book of Mormon to some people who were all super excited to have us come back. We're so thankful for those blessings. It's quite the miracle, truely.

We finished up the day by going to go see Elder Anderson once more, then went home. The next day we got up nice and early and picked everyone up in the Cargo van to go see Elder Anderson one last time. It was way cool just how strong the spirit was at each meeting, and the countenance that he had, even though he's just a regular guy. He was waaaaay funny! He kept joking with me and my companion because every time he spoke we somehow found some seats up in the front couple rows. He offered some awesome insight on how the stake can do better on different things, so we can get a temple out here. Hopefully someday, that's all I gotta say. If we could get all of Utah to move out here, then I think it would work well. It's sad because there's so much potential out here, but there's just an attiude of "we've already done that and it work this time" that must be in the water or something.

We've got a ton of appointments today, and we only get until noon for pday since we essentially are getting Thanksgiving off from how many meal appointments we have. I'm way stoked!! ;D

Love yall!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, Wv 25314

Same old

Nothing too exciting going on. the only real exciting stuff is coming this saturday. Neal L Anderson of the Twelve Apostles is coming to Stake conference and the mission is all coming together for the first time in the mission's history. We're all really excited for it! He's going to be speaking to all the missionaries from 11-2pm, then Elder Stoker and I have a baptism at 2:30, about 30 miles away, so we're gonna be booking it. We'll be safe though, all is well. We're way excited for it all. Other than that we're staying way busy with going to district meetings and teaching the zone in smaller groups than the entire zone all at once. Needless to say, we've been traveling a ton and teaching other missionaries a ton as well. The only thing that stinks about that is that we sacrifice the time to find and teach people, so sometimes we feel bad that we're not seeing as much success as other missionaries. We're always trying though!

Other than that, we're not doing a whole lot since we dont have any real investigators. There was a guy whose in jail that asked the jail to get ahold of us for him. He's way solid. He told them that he didnt want to go to church at the church jail because they didnt have the proper authority. He's solid!

Love yall!

~Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Where's the mission going?

Time really feels like it's going by so quickly. This transfer has already started and it's already 1/6th of the way done. I'm almost at a year and two months. This is way crazy. Halloween is already past, and Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner. But anyway, I'm not really trunky or anything. We've been having a tough time finding people, but we've still been teaching members quite a bit, so that's good. Today's been kind of a tough day where it seems like one thing after another is just going wrong, one small thing after another. But thankfully the scriptures save the day because in my reading of the Book of Mormon, I just happened to be reading in Alma 8, where Alma went to go teach in Ammonihah, and was cast out by the people. He was way down but was visited by an Angel who told him to be more positive, and to go back and work, and it really helped me. I don't usually write home about this kind of stuff, but I thought that it was kind of cool.

We're working hard since it's the beginning of the Transfer. Meetings and training going on for the next 2 or 3 weeks. Elder Neal L Anderson is coming on the 19th and 20th, and he's going to be speaking to the mission on the 19th. We're all way stoked for it. There's a new Assistant, Elder Hilton, who I've been around for most of my mission. Elder Moen, who was the last Assistant and my trainer, is now training once again up in Morgantown. Elder Ames, one of the other missionaries in our ward, is also training a brand new missionary from San Diego, he's pretty cool. They're getting along good so that's better than his last companion. Elder Stoker and I are together for at least one more. We'll see because he's starting to get a little bit older in the mission.

We were talking with some people at church yesterday. There's a couple of younger girls, around 9 and 13 years old I think. We were talking with the lady that brings them to church and we found out that they're not members, but their dad is Less Active. We were saying hi and introducing ourselves to them, and they didn't say a word, didnt smile, didnt look us in the eye. Maybe it's just me, but children have a certain light in their eye, and when it's not there it makes me just want to do what I can to help them to get it. Their names are Ariel and Storm. Not even kidding. The oldest is Storm, and apparently when she was born, there was a huge storm that came out of no where, so her parents named her Storm. She seems the most unhappy. Back home, I know that there would be people that would tell me to just mind my own business, and to leave them alone, but that's the problem with this world. No one cares enough to help each other out, and those kids are the ones that could be teaching my children in school someday, or leading the country I'm in, or pulling me over when I roll through a stop sign. I guess, it's just been bugging me since I met them, sorry for kind of rambling.

There's not a whole lot going on other than that. Just meetings and more missionary work. We're working hard and trying to find more people to teach. Unfortunately knocking doors isn't too effective, and finding through members isn't exactly what it's cracked up to be, at least not yet. Fall is all around, and there's no more green. I really do wish I had a camera that could do all the colors justice, but I would be too distracted by it if I had one. There's a member who asked if I could do a shoot for their family if they provided the camera for some service, so we'll see. That would be a dream come true, for sure.

Well, until next week, Love y'all!

~Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

When a large, naked, Cuban man answered the door with a Machete and screaming Spanish...

You realize that you didn't learn the things he was saying in your high school class.

True story.

Anyway, at the beginning of the week, we were asked by President Pitt to go to Ravenswood for a couple days to help out the companion ship there because they were having it kind of rough. We helped them a lot, and now they're being split and a new missionary is going up there. I have a feeling we're going to have to do it again, because its a new missionary coming in. Then we went up to Parkersburg North for a couple more days, and helped out the area there. Their companionship was going kind of rough as well, and they're being split tomorrow as well, both are getting companions that they are going to be great match ups for.

Then we finally got back to our area on Thursday and didn't really get to do any work until Friday. As far as working and numbers go this week, it wasn't so good, because all our investigators dropped us pretty hard, and that includes our two that had dates for baptism. :/

Oh well! We'll find more people to teach! Speaking of the naked guy. We found him yesterday. And the situation actually happened! He didn't speak a lick of English, so we mustered enough Spanish to ask for a computer, where we got onto Google and used the translator. We're pretty resourceful. I think I'm gonna pick up a Spanish workbook or something though. I never took Spanish, but I could catch a word or two. He could also speak Russian! I mean Russian is hard enough as it is, but when it's with a Cuban accent, yikes!

Transfers are tomorrow. Elder Stoker and I are staying together for another transfer, but we're getting a new Assistant. My trainer, the senior assistant, is going up to Morgantown to train my "brother" in the mission. The mission is getting way cool every transfer. This transfer, Elder Neal L Anderson, of the Twelve Apostles, is coming to Charleston to speak at Stake Conference. He's also asked that the ENTIRE MISSION gather in Charleston for a couple hours of hoo-rah. To my knowledge this is the first time that the entire mission will be together in the same place. We're all pretty excited!

Well, we gotta get going! gotta go do laundry :/

Love ya'll!

~Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Unfortunately gotta make it quick today

Not too much to report. We've been having a good time with our two investigators. Haha. They both have dates for baptism too. While we were teaching one, we were teaching her sister at the same time(her sister was investigating, but we dropped her as I'm about to tell) and some guy knocked on the door. The sister went outside and we just kept teaching. Then the sister and the random guy walked in the back door, snuck upstairs while she was saying, we gotta make this quick. THEN we heard the bed upstairs banging around a bit. It was pretty stupid on her part. We dropped her. It seems that whenever we go over there something interesting happens. The one we're still teaching is still way solid. We're just ahving some troubles getting her to church because things keep getting in the way. It's pretty frustrating. But she's way cool.

So today we're with the missionaries in Ravenswood and Spencer. We're working with the Ravenswood elders specifically because they're having a tough time, and then tomorrow we're going up to Parkersburg north to help them as well. We've been asked to do a whole bunch more of exchanges with missionaries that are having troubles. We're not going to be back in Charleston until Thursday.

Transfers are already upon us. Next Wednesday is exchanges and we're most likely going to be together once more. It's going to be good because we work really well together. Well unfortunately I do have to get going and let another missionary on the computer. Notmuch else to do. Love yall!

~Elder Wiederholt

Good week!

We're doing so good here in Charleston! Yesterday, Richard recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost, which he's been looking forward to since his baptism a week ago. He's such an amazing man and has really overcome a lot to become a better person and live the way that he wants to live. It's such a blessing to be a part of the work that changes lives for sure. We're working with 3 others right now who are set with dates for baptism in November and December. I sure do hope that they make the choices to go through with it, but its just that, their choice.

Elder Stoker and I are doing so great. We have a lot of fun, but get a lot of work done as well. We're really starting to build a lot of trust with members here, and are being asked to go visit so many different people. From what it always sounds like these people all need a lot of help, the kind of help that only the gospel can really bring them. One in particular is a family that's been less active for a while. We've had a couple of different experiences that have pointed to us needing to go over to visit them, and so that usually means we need to. One member in particular. She's had some really tough times in her life already for a 16 year old, and feels that her prayers for help have been left unanswered. It seems like she just feels abandoned. It's a broken home situation, and just bad news all around. That's whats so wonderful about God though. He prepares each and everyone of us to meet other people to help them to learn and grow and progress as people. I truely feel like I've been a tool for the Lord in this way several times on my mission by helping teenagers from broken homes who feel abandoned because I can really relate with them. Anyway, we're really excited to go to visit the family. Oh yea, we learned that this girl works at a Dairy Queen. Hahhaha

This mission rocks my socks. That's all I gotta say!

Love yall!

Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

we've had such an awesome week!

It's been a pretty good day. We missed most of our p-day for Zone Leader Council inwhich on of the Seventy came and taught us. Elder Nash, of the First Quorum of the Seventy. It was way cool to have him here to teach us and help the mission to move in a great direction. Unfortunately though we haven't been able to do laundry yet, and we figured we could do emails faster than doing laundry before our appointments tonight.

I can't proclaim how much I truely love Charleston! It pretty much rocks my socks! This last week we had an opportunity to go to a huge car show along the water front of the Kanawha(pronounced Kana) River. There were over 900 cars, and they were all sweet. I'm sure I can list off several people who would've loved to be there. We keep having interesting experinces here, including this last week we were talking to someone on their doorstep when a random lady parked her car across the street, started to blast Lady Gaga, got out of her car and started dancing in the middle of the intersection, then tons of neighbors started to come out and yell at here inwhich caused her to get fuming mad, and try to run random people over. It was quite entertaining. Well, we got into a lesson with this lady we were talking to, and then a friend of hers who's a Jehovah's Witness walked into the house and tried to argue with us. We didn't do anything, kind of just stood there because we haven't ever had someone walk into the middle of a lesson who genuinely hates us and try to tell us this in front of our investigators. Later on that day we were trying some people when we pulled up to an intersection, facing a street with a railroad on the other side. Elder Stoker was super suprised at what he saw, and then I finally realized what happened. There was a derailed train there! It was waaaay crazy! All this was in one day too!

Last sunday we had a baptism of a man who's been taught for about 2 months. His name is Richard Rutta, and he's way sweet. Whn he came up out of the water he had the biggest grin on his face. Possibly one of the best moments for any missionary is seeing someone change their life for the better who really wants to do it, and looks forward to everything with a smile. He's got a couple of tough weeks on the way because he has Parkingsons and has some surgeries over the next couple weeks to reduce tremors.

We also at some point decided to have an ugly tie day. I decided to change my tie before leaving the house though because I wore it once where a member saw me, and was sincerely concerned that I was going home, so I decided to rebel in sorts and wear the tie. Hahaha I'll send the picture of us! I love the three other missionaries in my apartment. It seems like we're such guys in the fact that one is always trying to be better at everything, one's always working out, one's always punching the others and pulling pranks on them, and the last is just sitting and watching the rest so he can write an email about it home. They're all absolute studs, most definitely called of God for this work.

Well we jsut got a text that we have dinner in 15 minutes. Love yall and I hope to hear from yall again soon! We've decided that we'll come back to the library to email tomorrow because of not having time. ttyl!

Love,

Elder Shain C Wiederholt

1622 Virginia St Apt B

Charleston, WV 25311

life is being a little hectic(sp?)

Dearest family,

Charleston continues to rock. General Conference rocked. Elder Stoker and I rock. Everything rocks.

I say thing things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Just kidding, we've been soooooooo busy this post week its not even funny. We only got to work in our own area for like 3 days total, and everything still went well! We had 4 investigators at conference! We did like 2 exchanges, and 2 meetings with President Pitt and the districts. Life is super busy as a Zone Leader, but I love it, it keeps me doing things. We have a baptism set for this coming sunday, and then another coming next month. Life wrongs right now and I'm loving it. Have I mentioned I love it?

I love yall, but I have to go, the mission sent my companion and I a ton of stuff and we gotta look through it all in like 6 minutes. yikes!

Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

charleston, wv 25314

Charleston pretty much rocks!

I love Charleston. It's soooo much like Portland. There's Coffee shops all over the place, and tons of people smoking. There's even a river running right through it! The are that I cover includes downtown Charleston, and we live a block from the Capital Building. It's really cool to do companionship studies with the Capital building sitting right outside our window. I live with the Assistants to the President, and one of them is my trainer, Elder Moen, from Seattle. My companion is Elder Stoker, from St. George, Ut. He's soo awesome, I love him to death. He's a way solid missionary and he's way funny. He reminds me a lot of Elder Allred, that he's somewhat quiet and calm, and likes to hunt. Elder Moen's companion is Elder Leah, from England. He's way funny too. HAhahha Oh my gosh.

this computer and library makes me get off in like 2 minutes. I love yall!

Elder Wiederholt

1622 Virginia St Apt B

Charleston, WV 25311

or

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Time is short

Especially here. I was just transferred to Lynchburg a month and a half ago, and now theyre kicking me out again. It sticks and I'm going to miss it for sure, because I really did love it here, but I'm off to better things. I got a call from President Pitt yesterday and he asked me to serve as a zone leader in Charleston for the next few months. I'm extremely excited, especially since I'm going to me closer to the President than what I have been so far in my mission. It's going to be great!

Here in Lynchburg, of course the work explodes right as I'm leaving. We set two dates for baptism yesterday, and we're planning on setting another guy we're teaching on wednesday, right after I leave. It's a bummer but I know that they're all in good hands. They're all way legit too. Plus we had 3 investigators at church on sunday which is higher than what I've had so far on my mission.

Today before emails we all went to Appomattox, VA, which is the site where the Civil War ended. It's way cool and there's such a peaceful feeling there. It was way cool.

Elder Richards and I are doing great as a companionship. We're definitely having a good time with each other and trying to make as much of this as possible. I love that guy, he's a solid missionary. Last week also I had to go up to Charleston with another missionary in Gretna, Elder Sunada, for a leadership training meeting. The mission is going to be doing way awesome here shortly, if we can get everything implemented asap. I'm way excited for that.

Well, not much else is goin on. Love yall!

Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Such an amazing week!

First things first, one of my best friends from home just got his mission call to Nashville. He's gonna love it. Also, we set a guy with a baptismal date on the first lesson. The spirit was soo strong and he just plain rocks. I love that guy. And his name is Ozzi, like really, what a stud. Also, later on that day we were tracting and I felt like I needed to talk about something else on my door approach for once and so I did. The guy turned out to be athiest and I asked him the three questions that pretty much everyone asks themselves at some point: Where did I come from?Why am I here? Where am I going? A girl came from the back and asked if she could talk to us for 10 minutes or so. We ended up talking for 2 hours. She's way cool. She reminds me a lot of someone from back home in the northwest, so we were able to really connect on that front. We dont know if she was genuine or just flirting, but to figure that out we're giving her to the other missionaries. She lives in their area anyway. They're a little more quiet than my companion and I are, so we'll see how that one goes.

Today I'm packing for a 4 day exchange with the Gretna Elders. On Wednesday one of them and I have to drive up to Charleston for a Leadership meeting. We have to wake up at about 3am to get there by 10am for this meeting. It's gonna be sweet though, apparently there's gonna be some high-up people from SLC there. We're pretty stoked. This rocks. Also transfers are already coming upon us! Theyre in just 9 days! I can't even believe it because I feel like I just got here. Time really flies when you're having fun!

I love you all! But my companion now has to go to an Allergist appointment :/

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

1192 Homestead Garden Ct #7

Forest, VA 24551

Labor on Labor Day

Today is Labor day and we're trying our best to make the most of it that we can. This morning we had a fun time going on a photoshoot for all the missionaries. Theres a member in the Lynchburg 1st ward that does photography on the side and every other transfer she takes the district on a photoshoot. It was fun, she definitely does things a lot differently than I do when I shoot. We got some sweet shots though. She's going to add us each on facebook so that she can tag us, so hopefully those will be up on the web next week. She let me take a couple pictures so I could show her what I wanted taken of me, and it felt so good holding something with weight again. I miss that, but its all good. It'll come back someday. Also since its Labor day, the library is closed and we're at a members house checking our emails on their computers, and they gave us chocolate milk. Mmmm :D

We've been doing really good as far as the work goes. We've been continuing our tracting and we've been finding a lot of sweet people who are willing to hear what we have to say. Some people have even let us in and it all just starts out with some contention and then just one good thing goes right and the entire atmosphere changes. I love that! Heavenly Father has for sure been softening the hearts of all those around us. We're still working hard as ever.

President and Sister Pitt came to church with us yesterday. They are soo cool! President jogged up to the pulpit to give his testimony and it was awesome. It's incredible how energetic he is and excited about the work. He's one giant teddy bear. Sister Pitt is a little smaller, but she's really funny. She can also beat the best of us missionaries at ping pong.

Well unfortunately we are once again short on time because we still have to go shop and make it to a members house an hour away for lunch. All is well! Love y'all!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt
1192 Homestead Garden Ct #7
Forest, VA 24551

A Week of firsts

1) My first Earthquake - which we felt while tracting. At first we thought that it was someone coming to the door, but then the furniture was moving on the porch. We kinda just stood there and looked at each other. It cracked the Washinton monument and broke the spires on the DC temple!

2) First Hurricane - We just got hit by the edge, but it was still a little winding and rainy. The frequent winter showers back home were worse. Of course it was much worse on the coast with flooding and what not. However we are definitely prepared for a major event incase something happens closer to home. We were asked about a month ago to have our emergancy supplies updated.

3) Loaned 17 copies of the Book of Mormon! - As exciting as that is, it was. I had never loaned that many copies before, and so hopefully more teaching will result.

I have pictures to send home, but these computers at the library are REALLY slow and dont wanna really load anything, so I'm going to send them home on a SD card again once I get enough of them!

Not too much else happening. We are starting to have a lot more success as I said with the loaning of the Book of Mormons. We also started teaching 5 new people this week. Theyre all pretty sweet. Plenty of challenges along the way though. :/ I'm also getting sick with a cold. I think I got it from hugging one of the Assistants at Zone Conference because I noticed afterward that he was sniffling a bit. Definitely feeling some opposition here but the good news is that something flippin awesome is bound to happen sometime soon.

Well I gotta be getting off. Theres tons of people here and lots are wanting to get on. :/

Love y'all!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

1192 Homestead Garden Ct #7

Forest, VA 24551

Schools in!

Lynchburg is going good. Unfortunately we dont have a whole ton of stuff going on at the moment. I've only met 1 of our investigators because all of their lives have gone haywire. We've been doing a bunch of tracting though, and so we're going to be doing that a lot more often. Unfortunately Lynchburg turns out to be the home of Liberty University, aka the BYU of Baptists, and they even get extra credit in class for bashing with us. I cant stand it. Thankfully our area has a lower percentage of students than the others. Plus, school started today. Exciting.

Well, Elder Richards is doing great. His sister got married last thursday, and he was all good with it. He's a way humble guy, and I see a lot of me in him from when I was 6 months out. Nontheless we're doing good. Sorry for the short email this week, but I had other stuff I had to do before I could email, and only have 30 minutes of time on the computers here :(

Love Yall!

~Elder Wiederholt

1192 Homestead Garden Ct #7

Forest, VA 24551

Lynchburg is sweet!

I love it here. The ward is BIG. And super supportive. They feed us daily and so it's really weird for me to go shopping and not have to buy anything for dinner! It's really awesome. I am getting used to driving a Malibu however. It's quite a bit smaller than a truck. Apparently we're going to be getting a Jeep compass next transfer though, because our car is over 50000 miles now. I'm pretty stoked.

Elder Richard is a great missionary. He's been out for just over 6 months, and really quiet, so I'm not really used to that yet, but hopefully I can get him to talk more. He's from Alpine, UT and he knew Elder Kelsch(my second companion) back home and in high school. He works hard and knows the area well. Sometimes thats the curse. I feel like he's treating me like someone who came in and disrupted what he and his last companion had going on sometimes, and that he's the boss because he knows the area better. I think we both know however that isnt how its supposed to work. I was the same way with Elder Kelsch when he came to Russell, so hopefully we can fix this before it starts effecting the work.

There was a less active member that we met at Walmart up in Kingwood one day, and it was completely random. We started visiting him and got to know him well, then he moved to a small town just outside our area. BUT! His brother and sister in law are in my ward here. They're soo cool! His brother is recently re-activated and his sister in law was baptized. They're both way legit. It's crazy how God will place us in certain places to that we can help entire families. Sooo crazy how that happens. Just builds my testimony more.

Well, love yall! I hope yall have a great rest of the summer as it comes to an end!

~Elder Wiederholt

1192 Homestead Garden Ct

Forest, VA 24551

Love yall!

Transferred!

I can't write anything too long, cause we're about to go to Morgantown to play some basketball and stuff. But, I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED! I'm going from Kingwood, WV to Lynchburg, VA. I can't wait. It's going to be soooo sweet. My new companion is Elder Richard. I dont know anything about him yet except that he's been out for 6 months. I think that's my calling, young missionaries. Every since missionary that I've been with when I meet them is always 6 months or younger. It's ok though, I love it. apparently he's absolutely awesome, which I dont doubt. His companion, Elder Lillie, is coming up here with Elder Stewart. We might not've gotten along at first, but I gotta admit, I'm gonna miss that kid. He's growin up so fast! Haha

Well family and friends, I love y'all very much, and I'll send a much longer email next week!

~Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

I feel happy... (Video)

Video, see last post " I feel happy..." for reference.

I feel happy...

And I dont know why, but its kinda wierding me out.

Really quick, just some pictures and a pretty cool video attached. Hopefully it all sends. The video is of something called a Tractor-pull, something definitely not in Oregon. It turns out that, as you can see in the video, the hole in the Ozone is actually over Oakland, Maryland. That video is of one tractor of many, 22 seconds over about 3 hours worth of Semi's, tractors, raised trucks and more. It was awesome. I also know that if this happened in Oregon, there would be people hanging in the streets. Pictures of us with some glow in the dark hats my Aunt Teddie sent us, Me with The Freeland family(we baptized Jeff and hopefully his wife will follow soon) and then us with Zac Lowery, a member who moved into the area for a month, then moved out again.

All the sudden over the last couple days I've been having a lot better time, and things have been better. It hasnt been so hot, and I've been really trying to show more charity and patience and stuff like that, which inevidentily just makes everything better. Also I'm really starting to get into the scriptures. Everything is so awesome. Everyone says this is a hard area, and its true. Everyone challenges your beliefs if youre not a regular christian(aka if your not mormon or jehovahs witness), and the more theyre challenged for me the stronger my beliefs get. Not that I'm bashing, I'm really trying to hold off on that, but once a muscle is torn down, it grows stronger.

Also I gotta say that I'm super thankful that all my companions so far have been erally patient and longsuffering with me. I have realized more and more of a hard head I am. As the Lord describes Israel in Isaiah(one of the first few verses of the first few chapters. I read that a few weeks ago), I have a neck of iron sinew. It's true, I tend to not budge too much. I'm working on that though. I swear!

It seems like that lately I've been doing a lot of changing. I suppose its about time, but I'm really starting to push myself and work harder. Not exactly tracting working hard or anything, but really just learning what I need to learn and applying it. Of course we're working, but it's slowed down since in my last 6 months here we've just about knocked every door in our area. We have a couple streets left, but we're doing a TON of Less-active work lately.

Well, I got some other stuff I gotta do really quick, and I sure do love yall! I saw some pictures from the beaverton 3rd ward get-together, and those seemed like it was an awesome time! I'm sad I missed it and hope that it'll happen again shortly!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

[No Subject]

Unforunately, these emails seem to get shorter and shorter because it just seems that not much is happening here. We're working hard to find people and especially Less Active work as of late, but its never anything too exciting. Unfortunately as well this area just gets harder and harder. I dont feel like its any regard to us, we just dont have too many places close to home to knock and we're running out of miles this month. The ward isnt helping as much as we would like, and we're eater cheaper and cheaper every week. Hopefully soemthing will be happening at transfers on the 10th, so I can get a change of scenery.

But! Jesus is the Christ! And everything will be better some day! We just have to work hard and try harder every day and we'll have our reward. I know all the protestants say no works, just faith. Well yea, faith is definitely that starting step. But having faith is a work because you're doing something, having faith. We dont work our way to heaven but we do need to be Christlike and love everyone to really take the Atonement for what it really is. Remember, Faith without works its dead! If you dotn believe me, just read James :)

Love yall!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Hippie Fest?

Apparently Preston County is home of the largest music festival in the country(according to the natives) called the All Good Festival. It was this last week, and 30,000 people came through town and camped out on an old farm for 4 days, listening to bands from 5am to 2 am. It was pretty nuts from what I hear. Our neighbor is a cop and she's been working 18 hours days because of it, but we heard from her that they've been making some HUGE drug busts because of the festival.

Unfortunately we've had a pretty bad week. EVERYTHING fell through, and all our work was done from dropping in on people. There really hasnt been a whole lot going on. Oakland is having a baptism next week though, and we're going to that. Also District Meeting this week, and also interviews the next day.

I really do wish I had more to tell everyone this week, but there really inst a whole lot going on! Oh, yea. It's going to be SUPER HOT this week. Not excited.

Love y'all!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Another Week

Just because I thought it was a topic of discussion between Elder Stewart and I, we were talking about what it would be like to cease. It's cause a couple days ago out of frustration with a youth, who was trying to get chalk all over me, I told him that he would cease(which I probably shouldn't have said now that I realize the severity of it) and he asked what that meant. He thought that he would just die, but we thought about it, and to cease means to completely go away. All memories and influences of you as well. At least when you die your spirit still exists, but to cease means thats even God would completely forget about you. Crazy, huh? I plan on saying that nearly as often anymore.

We had an interesting day on Saturday, let me tell you about it. We were visiting a Less Active member on Thursday when her 16 year old grand daughter came in and after talking a bit she invited us to this church event thing going on in Oakland on saturday. It was a youth thing, but we went so that we could talk to her and enjoy ourselves, but of course everyone there who was putting it on was going to school to be a minister, and wanted to test their learning on us. So these people just started bashing with us for an hour and a half and we only got to talk to our friend for just a couple minutes. Other than that, they actaully got some doctrine out of the Song of Solomon, and we did learn a bit. Plus, there were a couples kids there speaking tounges, and that was crazy. Intense stuff, because I've never seen that kind of stuff before.

Other then that, we're still working with the same people, everything good seems to just be leveling off now, and soon the coaster will go down hill once again. I'm hoping it wont be so bad, but thats expected. It happens frequently it seems. Its all for our good though! To help us learn and grow and be prapared for later on in life when things get harder and harder!

Unfortunately, not much else is going on. hopefully things pick back up. Love ya'll and talk to ya'll next week! :D

~Elder Wiederholt

202 E High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

Phew boy

We're kind of in a hurry today. Yesterday we werent able to check our emails because of the 4th and so we're doing it really quick today. Here shortly, we're going to be on our way to meet up with the Clarksburg Zone Leaders for exchanges and then I'm going to Clarksburg today. Its the first time I'll be leaving my area for an exchange since my first transfer here in Kingwood, so early March. Tomorrow we'll exchange back and go to Zone Conference, where we're going to meet our new Mission President. He's Apparently an awesome guy, and I cant wait to finally meet him. I dont know if anyones seen his picture in Church news, but he's such a teddy bear. haha.

Yesterday, for the 4th, and since we were able to do much, Oakland and us drove to Morgantown and played a bunch of basketball for a few hours with the 4 missionaries in Morgantown. It was a lot of fun. We got really tired though, cause its been super hot and super humid lately. Especially since yesterday there was a HUGE storm that came out of no where. That tends to happen a lot here for some reason. It was dumping.

We're still going strong with Cameron, Charles and Ashley. In other news though, we have found a couple of Less Actives that we're really excited to work with here soon. One is Zac Lowrey. He's about 35 and he builds prisons. He went on a mission to Hong Kong and is now just traveling with his job. He lives in an area for about 2 years, then moves. He really likes it here though. He's also got one wallop of a testimony. He's probably the clsoest thing to the stereotypical surfer dude in the middle of West Virginia that you can think of, and its a nice change for once. The other is Jeremy Shreaves. He grew up in the ward, and he's 19 now. He's had a really tough childhood with being adopted, foster homes and being kicked out of the house a year and a half ago. He's a good kid though. We've been meeting with a guy for a few months, and we were over there when he pulled up. It turns out that he's staying there temporarly til he finds an apartment and goes to school in Fairmont or Morgantown. He also said that he's been thinking hard about coming back to church since we came by that first night, and he wants this part of his life again. Its weird, because everyone always says that theres that one person that you'll help the most on your mission, and I think I'll be able to really help this kid. Hoepfully we can get him on a mission.

Well, thats pretty much all thats happening here. Its quite the exciting place. I'm really hoping that my next area is bigger. Love yall! talk to yall next week! :D

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

I did it!

I finally figured out how to tie the Tornado knot! Hahahahahhaha I cant believe that it took me so long to do it and now I can! I'm so proud of myself.

In other news, not much is going on. We're teaching a couple of people that are super legit. One of them is named Cameron. He's about 21 years old and is dating a member whose family was less active. Now that family is coming to church to support him and he's coming too. We were teaching him more about the plan of salvation and I asked him where he thought we went after we died and he was like "well its like here and that house over there, theres something inbetween." I was like YEEEESSS! He grew up Catholic and stopped going to church after some tough times, but he's super prepared. I love that guy. We're also teaching a 24 year old girl who we're trying to determine is accountable or not. She has some minor memory problems as a result of cancer twice, three brain tumors and 50+ surgeries. She sweet though.

We're getting our new mission president in two days, then we're going to meet him next week.

Oh yea, I've actually been thinking lately about going to BYU. Weird, huh? Some people will realize how truly significant that is by how much I didn't really wanna go there in years past. I still do plan on going for Advertizing and some sort of photography/journalism. I don't know when I'll be able to start. I'll probably start in winter 2012, a few months after I get back so I can work and save up a bit, and find a place to live.
Plus, the elder I greenie-broke, Elder Allred, will be going there at that same time! :D

Not too much else is going on. Elder Stewart and I are constantly working to build our relationship, which is what its all about. Sometimes we dont see eye to eye because we're both stubborn, we both think we're always right and he's still green so like I was when I was a greenie, he challenges essentially everything I say or suggest. We're working on that. I talked to President Thornock about it and he said thats essentially why he put him up here, to learn patience. Who better to learn patience from some one who forces you to be patience because theyre always right, right? I'm learning too, nonetheless. I'm always saying that I have to work on humility and this must be Gods way of giving me a swift kick in the pants to get me started. I am getting transfered in August though, and I'm looking forward to that. I dont like being in an area for more than a few months, especially such a small area.

Pictures are 1) of me golfing(kinda. Just me with my golf bag that I was borrowing from a member) and 2) my District last Transfer: Elder Sain, Elder Stoven, Elder Stewart, and myself. :D

Love,

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

202 E High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

Well, I guess I gotta die

Because I said I wouldnt be caught dead golfing. Well, this morning, We went golfing. Granted, I stunk, but I got the 9th hole in 3 hits. :D haha Pictures next week!

In other news, theres not a ton going on here. We're just working hard to keep things going strong here in Kingwood for the next transfer. since it'll be President Pitts first transfer in the mission. We want him to think good things about Kingwood since President Thornock didnt really think too highly of the ward here. It definitely has its problems, but we're working on them. I kind of wish they would feed us more, but beggers cant be choosers.

We had to cancel the baptism for Ryan Lazier for Aug 20th. He's moving out of our area and he's all the sudden really hard to contact. :( BUT we did set another date for July 30th with a kid named Cameron Wilson. He's dating a girl whose family is less active, and now theyre coming to church too! :D We're really excited for him. Were also teaching another girl whose gone through Cancer twice, 3 brain tumors, and 50+ surgeries. We went over with the Bishop and he said that she might not be accountable, but we're going to hold on and see, because I've seen a lot worse situations than what she seems like.

Uuuuuuum.....thats pretty much it. Transfers are tomorrow, so I'll be here in Kingwood until next transfer, which is August 10th. :D

Love,

Elder Shain C Wiederholt

202 E High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

Well good news and bad news

Good news is that its not hot out! yay!

Bad new is that an investigator just dropped us :( I kinda saw it coming but Elder Stewart is kinda sad about it. At least he's showing love for the people

Well, we're going to be having transfers next week, so Pday is gonna be on Tuesday. We're looking forward to the new elder coming into Oakland, and we don't know if I'm being transferred or not. Probably not since I'm training but you never know. President Pitt is getting here in about 3 weeks or so(June 29th). His bio thing is in the church news, or was in the church news. the Branch President in Oakland got us a couple of the page so we could read over it and stuff. It's pretty sweet stuff!

Not much is going on with our investigators. We're teaching this one girl who has survived cancer twice, 3 tumors and 57 surgeries. She's only 24 too! She's also surprisingly all or mostly there and understands the doctrine well. She definitely feels she has a purpose to still be here and we're getting more and more excited about her. We're also teaching a 21 year old kid whose dating a less active member, but because we're teaching him the family is starting to come back to church! :D We've been trying for a super long time to get them to come and we're really excited about it. We're also super super excited because this area was essentially tracted out, and now we're able to start retracting streets again for the first time since the area opened back in December. Its pretty relieving to have something somewhat productive to do now when it comes to finding.

We're working hard with Less Active work as well, but whenever we pray about a name on the roster and it feels right, then we bring up in Ward Council, we get SHOT DOWN. I can't stand it. Our ward tends to be negative and of the "oh we tried that once already" which is pretty typical in a ward full of super old people. Well, its a good thing that we're just gonna keep trying again and again and again until we get it, because that's what we're used to. If missionary work wasn't about trying things over and over again, this church would've crumbled a long time ago.

Looking at Katrina's graduation announcement I remembered that she's graduating tonight, at the time that I go to bed. So that's good.

We got a brand new truck this week! It is smokin hot! Its 2011 Chevy Colorado, Silver. and its bigger, better, and has a nicer sound system. What can I say? I love to hear that Bass in Mormon Tabernacle Choir. True Doctrine. I wouldn't know if it accelerates faster or not...haha just kidding, but I actually don't know. I'm trying to be a good driver! Plus, at least I haven't hit any deer or anything yet! :D That's a good thing! I'll send a picture of our new baby next week!

Love Y'all!

~Elder Wiederholt

202 E High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

PRAISE JESUS!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA We've been waiting to get that picture FOREVER. Of course today when showing our bishop that he told us that the pastor of the church in which the giant Jesus resides wouldn't care if we went there with tons of people there. I'm glad that even the Antied Pastors are starting to have softened hearts to us. Speaking of which. We're doing an exchange with one. We're mowing her lawn if she listens to the discussions. :D They're super cool though Cant wait, theyre black too! It just keeps getting better!

When it comes to the ward though, things are getting harder. Since its the summer, everyone thinks its ok to go camping on sundays instead of going to church. We already only have a regular attendance of like 40, so that is cut in half like every week. Memorial day weekend there was 15 people. We're finally starting to get somewhere with Less Active work, however. The bishop finally gave us a list of people he wants us to go visit.

Oakland, MD missionaries had their first baptism in a few years, and that one was a child of record. This one was so legit. His name was Mark Rohrbaugh. He was a Jehovahs Witness, and his wife unfortunately left him because of his choice to join the church. It happens though, and Heavenly Father will most definitely bless him for it. His mom and soon his dad and sister are now taking the discussions as well.

Not much going on right now. Its getting hotter, and I cant stand the heat and humidity. blech.

Love yall! We'll talk to yall next week! :D

number 1!

Hello yall!

Kingwood is doing ok. We're just working hard as ever, and its getting hot as ever. I dont know whats hotter, us or the weather. We've been told that Playboy(ooh boy...) rated mormon missionaries as the hottest guys in uniform, second to the UPS guy. I dont know if thats a good thing or not. But it makes me feel better knowing that people only stare because we're so good lookin!

But yea, its probably hotter outside. blech :(

We've just been doing a lot of door knocking and whatnot. We're going to go see a mom and her daughter tonight who have dates for July 16th. Hopefully they make it. They gotta not cancel appointments like they have been for the last 3 weeks. I think if they cancel tonight we'll take them off date til we meet with them again. We also set another date for August 20th with a 23 year old kid named Ryan. He's way cool and believes we're divinely sent(which we are, so its true doctrine). Unfortunately, he's hooked to Oxicotin. Smoking too, but thats easy compared to a hard drug. He started using it to get off cocaine.

We had Zone Conference yesterday, in which we got a 3 generation training picture. In other words, a picture of me and my trainer and my greenie. Its pretty sweet stuff. I also sent that picture with this email and the picture of our zone.

Well, not much else is really happening here right now. :/

Talk to yall later! Sure do love yall!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

202 E High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

A crazy couple of weeks

We are doing awesome. 'Nuff Said.

Just kidding, I apologize first off for not sending an email last week***. We Got pretty busy with transfers and such and so we didnt get a chance to email. But! Elder Allred is gone :( He's in Pembroke, VA and is rocking it down there. I'm now with Elder Stewart. I'm training him, and he's fresh out. He's from MEDFORD! :D hahaha These two Oregonians are gonna tear up West Virginia! He's cool though. Kinda shy and quiet, but cool. I sent a picture of me and him, along with the last picture that Elder Allred and I took together before he left.

There are a few different pictures. Some of Elder Allred and I with Garrett when he was trying on his jumpsuit. Also a couple of Elder Stewart and I at the baptism. Theres one of me pointing at a clock, well at 6 oclock on May 21st was the end of the world. Were still here. Elder Allred and I also got to try out the mission vehicles(horse and buggy). Then theres some pictures of a river called the Cheat River and a really cool bridge thats on it.

We also have a family that we were super excited about. Now it turns out that they could very well be going to prison for a very long time thanks to drugs. They've been breaking into homes to steal stuff. Yeah...

Our ward mission leader loves to golf and he also has tons of open land, so he's been letting us drive golf balls off into eternity. Yes, I've actaully touched a golf club. I know I've said that I wouldn't be caught dead with one, but I guess its a good thing I'm not dead, cause then I'd be a
lier and would cease. haha

Other than that, not much else has been happening. Except the end of the world. Kingwood is gone. Bye Kingwood!

Love,

~Elder Shain C. Wiederholt

202 E High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

(***-This post was also held back due to the lack of pictures originally sent with it.)

Good week, but slow

As the subject line suggests, we had a good week, but it went by super slow. We're starting to go out and try to find members on the roster at church who havent been to church for some time, and also members who are coming to church too. We dont know where anyone lives! All the addresses are PO box numbers, so we're going to go find their homes and record the coordinates.

I got sick this week, or allergies, either way, I'm pretty miserable. We only get a certain amount of hours of sleep as it is, and then I always wake up to blow my nose and get a drink and stuff. blech. I hope it ends shortly.

Not much really happened this week! We did have one experiance however. We were out knocking and a guy answered and the first he said was that we were making his dogs bark a lot. unfortunately we cant do much about that, and we told him that. Then he said "Well boys, here's the deal. Jesus died and came back to life, right?" and we just said yea, sounds about right. "Well, to me thats a zombie, and I dont like zombies. So once you have figured out how to get rid of zombies, you can come back." Then he shut his door. We never had a door approach like that, and neither has any other missionary we've talked to. So kudos to him for creativity. Haha

Some pictures too. One is of a picture of a sign near Oakland, MD that we thought was pretty funny(cause Matthew doesnt say that, we're pretty sure). Some that I sent last week, Elder Allred and I with Jeff before the baptism. One of us with the youth for a nerf war. And then one of the finished drawing for president and sister Thornock. :D

Love yall!

Elder Wiederholt

202 E High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

:D

Well, I gotta be really quick cause we have an appointment in like 25 minutes, and theyer 20 minutes away, so I apologize about any spelling errors.

First things first, we had a baptism! His name is Jeff Freeland! He's soo cool and just loves the gospel. Unfortunately the ward doesn't know him and support them as well as we would like but oh well, that'll have to come with time. There were only 9 people total at the baptism, including Elder Allred and I and Jeff. yea...It'll be better at our next one though! I totally promise!


The next one we have planned is for the 21st of may. His name is Garrett Wolfe, he's in the picture with all the nerf guns, the boy in the front on the left. He's legit as well.

Speaking of nerf guns, we had a nerf war with the youth from the ward, and had each of them try to invite friends to it so we could get them to like us missionaries a bit more. haha. They all had a great time and we loved it as well.

We were in Oakland all day today, helping some people move. It was crazy. They kept on deciding and redeciding to have a couch in there or not, and so we spent 2 hours packing and unpacking for no reason.

I wish I had a camera today. not a point and shoot, but a legitamite camera. AHH If I ever have a companion with one I'm gonna have to be ETed cause I think I'll be too distracted. I wanted to get some sweet landscapes while we were in Maryland today, but point and shoots just arent able to capture the colors and depth and tones and things like a DSLR can. gaaah!

Well, not much else happened. Elder Allred's Bday is next week, mothers day! We dont know when we're going to be able to call. So we'll try our best.

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

202 E High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

(PS we didnt move, I've just been getting my address wrogn this entire time and the postal service has been awesome cause they all know us! hahahaha

rockin Kingwood!

Well Easter was awesome yesterday! As was my birthday! :D We were fed both lunch and dinner by members, and there were tons of people at each one. It definitely made each one interesting! other than that things are doing great. Kingwood is all the sudden getting really hot, but really wet too. Its about 70-75 outside right now, and the high is 80. We're expecting thunderstorms all week, which of course we still get to go do work in. This week is going to be really busy though. We're doing exchanges, correlation, district meeting, interviews and Jeff's Baptism. Btw, keep him in your prayers this week! :)

We had a good week with finding this week. There was one week that we found three new people to teach, then we found two others as the week went on. Kingwood is being a rather fruitful dead area. I wish we had this many blessings back in Ashland! It would've been awesome! Elder Allred and I are going to be doing a little nerf war thing with the young men this week for mutual. We're essentially gonna play capture the flag with nerf guns, and its going to rock. I'm most definitely going to sport the new shirt that I got from Katrina today and the ward gave me some bday money(which I didnt want to take but they insisted) and went and bought me a cheap little nerf gun. It packs quite a punch. :D

Other than that, not much is going on this week. It was a long week this week cause we walked everywhere so that we would have enough miles to meet the zoneleaders half-way between here and Clarkburg twice for exchanges, and then interviews on saturday. Keep praying for Jeff Freeland and Garrett Wolfe! Thanks and love y'all!

~Elder Wiederholt

303 E High St #3

Kingwood WV 26537

rainy and windy

So we've been doing great in Kingwood. All of our appointments fell through this week, so we had the opportunity to go knocking a lot. It was really windy and rainy, and apparently there were tornado warnings all week, but we didnt know a thing about them. Go figure, hmm? Well obviously we didnt need to worry about them here otherwise we would've heard about them. Plenty of people were really nice and let us in out of the rain and wind and fed us lunch and things. Several asked us to come back, but we dont know if theyre interested or not.

So funny story. Yesterday we were driving to church, about 8 in the morning, going 50 down the street(which is actually below the speed limit) and just trying to make it to Ward Council in time. All the sudden, a small bunch of small birds flew out and landed on the road right in from of the truck, about 2 seconds before I got there. I had several thoughts go through my head like: should I swerve into their flight bath? should I honk? I cant slow down in time, should I just speed up? Well, of course, by the time all these thoughts ran through my head, I had already plowed them under. I felt bad, but my companion told me that they deserved it for being that dumb. I've learned an important lesson: Joseph Smith said that we can't progress until we end the unneccessary killing of God's creatures. Even if they're suicidal. Just kidding about the feeling bad part, we laughed for the next 10 minutes of driving to the church. :D

This week we also helped a less active family to paint a room in their home. We've been trying forever to convince them to call us if they needed anything, and it took her breaking her foot and losing her mom, and him getting heart surgury to finally call us. Thats what the picture is about. Elder Allred kalked some corners of the room. We did a pretty good job! Then, they fed us BBQ church and steak as a "payment." It was pretty darn good eatin. OH! Jeff, the man getting baptized on the 30th, gave us a bunch of deer meat. Just fyi, deer steak fajitas rock!!

Well, thats pretty much all that really happened this week. Til next week! Love y'all!

~Elder Shain C. Wiederholt

303 E. High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

Good week :D

I suppose the weather is a good thing to start off with. As good as another. Yesterday it was 80 degrees, and the humidity was so high that the humidity gauge on the thermoniter(sp?) actually broke. Today it was nice, but now as I look out the window, its starting to look REALLY bad. Theres supposed to be thunderstorms all day tomorrow too, and thats walk-n-talk tuesday. Sorry about my spelling, West virginia's getting to me..

This week was pretty average. We did great on all our goals, but of course numbers dont matter! :) We have also found out that the Jehovahs Witnesses have beengoing around to all of our investigators houses several times a week. I'm sure theyre doing neighborhoods and dont mean to go to specifically our investigators, but its literally a couple a day. We had one actually drop us because of it, for some reason :/ Opposition in all things!

We're starting to get ready for Jeff's baptism on the 30th of this month. Next month we have another date set that the world couldn't stop. His name is Garrett Wolfe. He's super legit, and just 10 years old! What a cool kid, love him to death. There's another lady we've taught but we're waiting a couple weeks to go back. Her husband was deployed and just came back last night. The internet was down a couple hours ago when we first came to check our emails, so we went shopping. We ran into them at walmart and got to meet her husband and just chat and let him know that we're real people too. Their daughter is sooo cool! She came up to me and showed me her shirt that said "My daddy is my hero!" AAHH! Such a cool kid! She also promised me a coloring page. I'm excited :D

Oh, there it is, the downpour...

Well. Elder Allred and I are rocking Kingwood. It was once a dead area, but we brought it back to life in the name of Jesus Christ and we're working hard. He's so legit. We do our best to share everything, except stuff in the bathroom, closets and our beds...And thats it. haha Its pretty awesome, my birthday is on Easter this year, and his is on Mother's day! He's got it good!

Have a good one everyone! Love y'all and wish y'all the best!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

303 E High St #3

Kingwood, WV 26537

PS The pictures are of Elder Allred and I being as gangster as it can get in West Virginia. We're doing WVCM standing for West Virginia Charleston Mission and then thats Jeff Freeland with his two kids! Jared and Amy!