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