wahoo!

Well, I have only like 2 days until I fly out. Not to be too trunky or anything. Haha, there's not a whole lot to talk about.

 

Elder Butler and I had a great weekend though. We were asked by someone to shoot their wedding last saturday. I borrowed some camera gear from a member and we had a great time! It was definitely an interesting form of service. She's going to be getting baptized in November. Also we had a baptism on Sunday! Michaela Wheeler, and she had a ton of family and other friends there. It was great to see sooooo many people there to support her! It's quite the way to finish a mission, to have a baptism and go to a wedding of a girl that's going to get baptized here soon. Soo awesome!

 

Love ya!

 

~Elder Wiederholt

Fwd: counting down!

 

I hope yall can forgive me for not writing a whole lot. I'll see mostly everyone here shortly.

 

Things are going ok. Just trying to survive the next 9 days. We have baptism on the 30th. It's definitely an awesome way to end a mission. Other then that, things are pretty much all the same.

 

We had stake conference, and we gave a couple other missionaries a ride to it. Here's a picture of all of us in the car wearing our funky sunglasses. Also, Elder Allred last week after doing emails was giving himself a haircut. The gaurd on the razor came off and got a good streak of baldness, and so I took a picture of it. I hope yall enjoy!

 

 Love yall!

 

~Elder Wiederholt

comin on up!

Unfortunately nothing too exciting this week. Just pushing through to the end! Also, Michaela Wheeler reset her baptismal date for Sept30th, so I'll be here for it! YES! I thought I was gonna miss it!

Love yall! See yall in Oregon in 17 days!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

Rockin Vista!

Pictures of some of our eating pursuits. Elder Butler and I like to eat. And if we get bored, then we make up new things, like Mac and cheese sandwiches. Oh yea baby! Also, for his birthday last monday, we agreed to go to Wendys to celebrate. It's quite the birthday present. haha!

 

Things this week were ok. We were able to teach a lot for whats average for the mission. We were asked by our mission president and the stake president to teach 17 lessons a week. There's a priority though, where member presents with an investigator, other lessons with an investigator, less active/recent convert lessons, and then active member lessons. It's a new concept teaching the active members, but we gave it a shot this week and we really learned a lot about teaching to needs. Of course these people all ready know the gospel, and most of them did missions themselves, but we were able to really bring the spirit, and it was great! That, and we were able to get 17 lessons. It was nice!

Unfortunately there was some bad news this week. The girl that is supposed to be baptized on sunday is having some crazy trials. Her dad, who has lung cancer and other health troubles was just admitted into the hospital a couple days ago. The doctors found 3 tumors in his brain. We're praying crazy hard for them, and will likely be fasting for them as well. We're not supposed to have people back home participate in special fasts, but if everyone could keep the Wheeler family, especially Mike, the father, in their prayers, that would be great. Because of this unforseen event, the baptism will very likely be pushed back, and I might not be here for it. But thats ok, because it's really not about me being here, as long as it happens, and Michaela pushes through those trials. Theyre tough, and I can relate to almost losing a parent. We're going to be doing a lot of service for them coming up, because the own a farm, and need some help maintaining it.

 

I had a meeting with one of the art directors here about a possible art scholarship. He said that I'm definitely getting one, but he doesnt know how much yet. He really liked my work, and said that I'm really going to help the school and students to grow as well. I'm really excited to come here and get to work. It's going to be great. Thankfully I'm not in the student wards. Keeping my blinders on would be incredibly hard, and it's already hard enough with the campus being in our area, and making up a good chunk of the town. I'm really trying to build good relationships with members here while I'm here though. That way I can really have some friends and people to go to for support during the tough college times. It's a good thing that half of the families in these wards are newly married couples, and theyre my age. That way it's a lot more comfortable.

 

Well, thats pretty much it. I'm trying my best to work hard! I promise!

 

Love,

 

Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Labor day alright!

So much for a break! haha just kidding!

 

Happy Labor day! We got so lucky to find the SVU library open today! It's pretty great.

 

Things are going great! Michaela Wheeler is gearing up for Baptism on the 16th, and all we hav eto do is finish teaching a couple more things. We're going to go over to her family's place tonight for Family Home Evening and just get to know everyong a little bit better. Nothing better than playing a game of Life!

 

We went to a little Labor day parade before coming here. It was really little like maybe 20 minutes long. But that's ok. They had a swing bagpipe marching band from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. They also fit a good 90% of the SVU student population into a long section of the parade where students just cheered and stuff. We went to just make a presence, and not to really do anything. The SVU kids saw us, and started yelling Elders! And before you know it, everyone and their mother was looking at us. Haha! It was funny, a little awkward, but funny.

 

Today is purge day, so we have to go spend essentially our entire pday cleaing the apartment, which we did on Transfer day. woot. That includes shampooing the carpet and throwing out a ton of stuff that's been collected by missionaries for years. Fortunately, did most of it two weeks ago, now today, we just have to clean the floors and the bathroom.

 

Everything else that's been happening has essentially been the same. Not a whole lot of exciting stuff going on. I'm still rockin my studies. I've memorized about 85 scriptures in the last 3 months or so, and I'm hoping to get to 100 by the time I come home. It shouldn't be too hard. It's just one scripture every other day, and when I'm trying to do one a day, it gets pretty easy to do. I'm hopefully going to finish the Book of Mormon for the 5th time on my mission as well before I return home. I'm marking all the scriptures that talk about Faith. Next I'm going to do knowledge. Then I'm going to do the rest of the Christ-like attributes.

 

Well sweet, Love ya fam!

 

~Elder Wiederholt

woohoo

Well Family and friends, I have officially applied to Southern Virginia University. We'll see how this goes. If all is well, I'd be starting the spring term in early 2013. I'll be able to return home for a few months, then I guess I'd be heading back out here. The one downside is that I've been away from family and friends for two years already, and within a few months, I'd be back where I was stuck for two years. It'll be good though. I'm getting more and more excited. And there's nothing like living down the street from my future college, and many of the members that I eat with or associate with are people that I'll be working with later too!

 

This week is going great! We taught so much last week. Also, about a year ago, I told my mission president that I wanted to see 6 more people get baptized while I've been out. Well, I told me companion that I haven't seen any since that goal was made, and then we were both just like why not this transfer! So we're shooting for 6 baptisms this transfer. That hasn't happened in a long time in the WVCM. Also, we already have one coming up on the 16th. This cool girl named Michaela. She's 16, and here parents are coming back to church for the first time in like 25 years. It's soo awesome. A lot of members are just like finally! but I guess its all about planting those seeds! We're also teaching a few other people that should be baptized this transfer or at least a week into next. We have two wards to work with, so it's definitely possible. Especially since this is like the promised land of the mission.

 

Elder Butler is sa-weet. We have so much fun. We're both running kind of low on food right now. That's a little bit of a problem. The missionaries that left the apartment behind that we moved into left it kinda trashed and we cleaned it for a few hours on transfer day. They did leave like two dozen eggs for us though! Unfortunately, they were expired. like 4 months ago. Go figure. I shouldn't be suprised.

 

Also, an investigator(which could be baptized before I go home) is getting married on my click day(sept29). She asked me to photograph her wedding. That'll be really sweet. I got permission from President Pitt, and will be borrowing a camera from a member. I'm pretty stoked.

 

Love yall!

 

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Last transfer!

Well, tomorrow begins my last transfer, but I'm not thinking about it too much. Or at least trying not to. I am being transferred, and I'm going to be going to a neighboring area, the Rockbridge area in Buena Vista. I'll be covering the Rockbridge and Buena Vista Family wards, and will actually be able to work within BV now. I'm pretty excited. I get to stay in such an awesome place, be around some awesome missionaries, and finish my mission with a great missionary! His name is Elder Neal Butler, and he's from Chicago, IL. He's been out for about a year and a half now, and I've gotten to know him really well over the course of my mission. I've been his Zone Leader a couple times, and I've been on several exchanges with him in the past. I love Elder Butler!

Things in Lexington are going good! I'm really sad to leave this ward. I love the members here so much! But BV and Rockbridge will be great too! I'm still gonna be working closely with a lot of students, of W+L, VMI and SVU. In Lexington though, we have had a couple good interactions this week with investigators and stuff. We had another good lesson with a guy named Sammy Moore. His choice to investigate is really a suprise to a lot of people, because he's apparently really non-commital and stuff, but he has kept all the commitments that we've asked him to do! He's cool, but he might be dropping us soon. We feel like he might be at least. :/

Also, we tried a former investigator, and he wasnt home again, but we talked to his daughter, and had a good conversation with her. We gave her a Book of Mormon, and she said that her family just quit their church because of politics and they want it to truly be about Christ. We did invite the family to come to church, but theyre going to be busy for a couple weekends.

It's really sad though that we havent seen the success that we had hoped for while I was here. But We worked way hard, and I absolutely love this ward!

Elder Shain C Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

A week of service

 Literally. We probably did some sort of service at least 4 hours of every day this past week. Needless to say, we're going the Ammon Approach. If you don't know who Ammon is, then you should read about him! Alma 17-18 baby! But yea, we've come to realize that since the work here is really slowing down as far as personal proselyting goes, we need to really work on building trust with the members. It's really working I think! It's great! We're really starting to help members to share the gospel and invite their friends to learn from us. It's definitely different, and slower compared to personal contacting, but that's alright. We're both convinced that neither of us will likely see a baptism for the rest of our mission, and so we're just trying to build the area for missionaries in the future. That's our motivation right now.

I finished my picture for President and Sister Pitt! It's based on O' Jerusalem by Greg Olsen. I called it O' Charleston. Some members in the ward were kind enough to build a custom frame for it as well. I'll send a picture of it. It was started when I was in Charleston, back in March. I didn't get a chance to work on it in Clarksburg, and since I've been here, I've been working on it every day during lunch or after planning at night. Needless to say, it rocks. I feel like there's parts that I could've done better, like the lower right hand section looks really flat compared to the rest of the picture, but that's alright. It was good enough to catch the eyes of people at SVU and get me an offer to do schooling there. We'll see. I don't know quite yet.

We're teaching this one guy names Sammy Moore. He's the county commissioner or something like that. He knows a lot of people, and a lot of people know him. We talked about our first lesson with him in Ward council, and said his name and we got some weird looks from people. A lot of people said "good luck, Elders." Well, we taught him for a second time yesterday, and have a third appointment with him on sunday. He said that he initially wanted to meet for educational purposes for his job since the mormon church is so dominant in the area, but I personally think that might be changing. In a week, he read a huge list of answers to questions of the soul in the Book of Mormon, started reading from the Book of Mormon, watched the Restoration DVD and read the Restoration pamphlet. We only told him about the pamphlet and the DVD, and only showed him the Book of Mormon. He has some awesome questions. He even told his friends at work about us, and when they dumped Anti on him, he withstood! Oh yea! There could possibly be a miracle brewing. We'll see!

So we have a wrench thrown in our plans for next transfer. We have to move out of our apartment tomorrow for students to move in on Wednesday. The Zone Leaders(who are in our ward as well) are being kicked out of their apartment for a new set of missionaries being put in for the YSA stake. So neither of us have an apartment as of the end of August. We're trying hard to find a place in Lexington, but students are moving in quick. And to make things worse, it appears that there's a law in Lexington that says that no more than 3 unrelated people can live in a single home or apartment. Soooo yea. We're working on it. We're trying to figure out if it's really a law or not. There's some lawyers in the ward we're talking to. Haha. We might be living in a member's basement for my last transfer! It's a good thing that we've been building trust! Nothing to worry about though. Who needs purse or script, right? The Lord will provide, and none of us are really panicking. But, as a result, please send all mail to the Charleston address.

Love yall!

Elder Shain C Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

I'm not trunky, I promise

Holy cow! Blessings so large that theres no room to recieve them, baby! Haha! The beginning of the school year is coming upon us. We will be having at least 7 new families in the ward in coming weeks. That's incredible! One family we met is the Lee family. They're not asian at all, but they're way sweet. They're way loaded too. They moved into one awesome mansion. They told us that they moved into a place on the corner of Sellers Ave and Main, and I thought for a sec, and I was just phew! That's a nice place! Haha They're way cool. They're from Mesa, AZ. It's way nice to have some new youth in the ward, including a priest age young man. Their oldest is starting at BYU-I here in a couple weeks, so we're losing her. Thats alright though. Another family we met is the Nielsons, from Logan, UT. He served in the WVCM in 2004-06. He's way cool. We haven't gotten to know them too well yet though. They were visiting his areas this weekend.

Things are going well in our area as far as the work goes. We're really trying to work hard, and stay focused. Especially since we're both going home in October. I have mixed feelings on transfers in two weeks on wednesday. I want to be able to finish my mission here, and I love serving with Elder Weitz, but I know that if we finish together, then we're going to be replaced with two missionaries that know nothing about the area. So all the hard work that we're doing to build a relationship with the members could easily be smashed. It's very sensitive. For the sake of the area, I hope that there is a transition to new missionaries, even if that means me leaving.

We've been really trying to be more bold lately. We had a door approach where a man shook our hands, and immediately tried to bash with us by saying that we dont believe in the Bible. Well, My companion was carrying his quad, and I had a mini KJV in my pocket. We totally put the kabosh on that one and many other things he tried to do by just simply sharing a scripture and testifying of Christ. My favorite line that we said was when he was accusing of putting Joseph Smith above Jesus Christ. We said that's not true, and proved it. He said that his preacher said that's what was going on. We told him that we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and that the Church of Joseph Smith of Latter-Day Saints doesn't exist to our knowledge. He also said John Smith instead of Joseph Smith. I said "Sir, it's Joseph Smith. John Smith married Pocahontas." That helped to lighten things up a bit. Afterwards we went and taught the Chair of the Chamber of Commerce in the county. We had told some of his associates in the ward that we had an appointment with him, and they said "Well Elders....Good luck!" Well, dear members of the Lexington Ward, that lesson rocked our socks. Haha. Sammy Moore is his name. And he did say that he wanted to learn about the church for educational purposes, but that he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and if he thought it was the Church of Christ, he would follow it. Good enough for me!

At church, we had an interesting sacrament. Sound was out because of a lightning strike. Bishop got up and told the ward how lucky they are to have such sweet missionaries. I'm not bragging, I swear, haha. But then, a crazy lady got up and started to rebuke the missionaries for not going completely out of their way at walmart to give her a pamphlet or invite her to church when she was less active. In the missionaries defense, she's nuts. And she would like just say hi to them. I dont know if she realizes this, but we get tons of hellos at walmart because we're in one of the most condensed towns of mormon poopulation on the East Coast. Anyway, we're trying to do better and actually talk to people who say hi. She was right about one thing, you never know when those people saying hi really need someone to talk to. Thankfully though, she was quiet, and like none of the investigators there heard her little rebuke. Phew!

Well, those are our sweet experiences lately. Sure do love ya!

Love, Elder Shain C Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

counting down! blech

We had interviews with our Mission President this week. They were great! I absolutely love being able to talk with President Pitt,
 and just letting him know in person how everything is going. We had a great district meeting as well, that was all about the Christ-like attributes. We were committed to pick one, and work on it extensively over the next week. I chose humility, because it's one that I guess I've always struggled with. We were also encouraged to look at an activity in Preach My Gospel about what we want to be like when we get finished with our mission, and I wrote everything on paper and ultimately decided that it'll all begin with me being humble enough to make the changes in my life that I will need to make to be the kind of person that I want to be. It'll be along road, and will take a little longer than two months, but here we go!

Elder Weitz and I are continuing to be work horses, even though we both go home in October. We still for some reason have this strange pattern of finding people to teach, and then they just fall off the face of the planet. We keep trying people, especially the one's that really do want us to come and visit, but people are just never home anymore! It probably doesnt help that it's the summer, and we serve in a place where people are either super-duper poor and non-commital, but are always home, or super-duper well-off and commital, but never home cause theyre always on vacation. But it's all about that final principal of the Gospel! Enduring to the End! I was listening to a talk by Jeffrey R Holland from October '11 where he really tells teenagers to get active and clean and ready for their missions. In there he said one sentence where he said time is running out. It really hit, cause I think that I definitely realized that time is running out on my mission, and that I feel that I've been a little passive. Gotta make these last couple months worth it and work the work.

Not a whole lot else going on. Just hot weather, and tracting in the hollers. Sure do love yall!

Also, sending some pictures of my comp and I at EFY with some of the councilors that we knew! And a street sign that has my first name on it, kind of. It's spelled wrong, but it's the closest that I'll ever get.

Especially for Youth!

Well, some pretty cool stuff is starting to go on. It's nice for a change. We've spent the last two fridays teaching at EFY, which is the church's summer youth camp, available through out the states. It's been a really cool experience because when I heard that I was going to being here in Buena Vista for EFY, I'll admit it, I said a little bit of a prayer that there would be a missionary day that we would be involved in. Well, on Elder Confer's last day, we happened to run into one of the administrators. She told us that EFY was doing something new this year. They were cutting out one of the two days of class, and doing a missionary day. They invited us to come for an hour and to teach the kids how to share the gospel with their friends, but not to be overbearing or seem SUPER religious and scare their friends off. It's been awesome. We get to do it again and for the last time on Friday. I'm hopefully going to get a picture with some of the councilors that I've met too.

Also, we're finally starting to teach our investigators a second time. It's good to teach someone, then come back and see that they haven't gotten blasted with Anti from their Baptist preacher or something. I cant stand it when that happens, but I guess its gotta. This is a sweet area, but hopefully things can pick up a little bit more as far as teaching goes. We're getting bored. Haha. We're running out of streets to tract, and we've visited most of the Less Actives and former investigators. I'm really hoping that President doesnt pull us out, but it might need to happen if things dont pick up. :/

I hope all is going well. I cant believe that July is almost over! Gah!!! That means Fletcher goes home soon!!!

Love, Elder Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

Things are slowing down

Well, like the title suggests, things are really starting to slow down. We're unfortunately not teaching a whole lot, but we're doing our best and staying busy. Elder Weitz and I both go home at the same time, so we're trying really hard not to get trunky and whatnot. Theres a lot of Holler tracting going on, and just trying to find people. The Zone Leaders in our ward are doing great, and are teaching a ton. Apparently everything to do is in the north half of the county. Nevertheless, we're trying to do our best, and working hard.

We all had dinner with a family yesterday. The husband went on his mission forever ago in Montana, and actaully knew where Townsend was. It was awesome talking to him. He started to tear up a bit when Elder Weitz and I told him how the church was doing there. He was proud to know that Townsend was a ward, that there's 2 stakes in Billings, that theres a branch in White Sulpher Springs, and three wards in Helena. It's really crazy. He started to tear up a little bit.

Well, my greenie-breaker went home last wednesday. I miss Elder Kelsch so much, and I dont have his address. Oh well, I will sometime soon.

Love yall!

~Elder Shain C Wiederhlt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

storms and pictures!

  

The pictures I'm sending are from a photoshoot that a member did of us this transfer. Transfers are on Wednesday, and I'm staying. My new companion will be Elder Weitz, from Billings, MT, and he came out the same time as me. Elder Confer will be moving to Roanoke North, and working with the family ward there. It's sooooo crazy how fast time is flying now, because it seems just like yesterday that I met Elder Confer, but now hes all growed up and stuff. It's incredible. He's come so far and it's nice to see that he's doing well. He's really excited, and I'm excited for him.

 This week has been really crazy, as was last week. the weather especially has made it hard to work effectfully. That, and all of our investigators have been out of town or just havent been home. hopefully that'll change here soon. I'm looking forward to tearing it up with another really experienced missionary. First time that I've had this opportunity on my mission and havent had any leadership that would take up time as well. We're pretty stoked. We did find this super awesome lady named Pattie. We're really excited for her. We just tracted into her and she really opened up. She's really excited to read the Book of Mormon and she has great hopes that her family will have a unity of Faith one day. We're praying for her!

 

 Also we've been cleaning up our fair share of trees. We've cleaned up well over 20. It's incredible.

Well, sorry its short, but we got a TON to do. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
charleston, WV 25314

storms like crazy!

 The weather here has been sooooo crazy that I dont even know what to do with myself. A week ago, it was 70's, two days later, it was 90's. the next day, it was 107 at one point while we were tracting(A thermometer on a porch told us) and then that night we had 80mph winds, and crazy lightning and rain. More storms to come baby! We've been doing a lot of service clearing trees. Some of the pictures I'm sending are of trees down in the yard of a member. a couple trees actually fell on their house! It's pretty crazy some of the carnage. We were without power for just a night, but because we're in town, we didnt have to wait on it too long. We stayed the night at another missionary apartment that had power, and we've been good since. We're all good, but be sure to keep the other missionaries in your prayers because theres still several companionships without power or water.

Because of the weather, things have been really slow. We're done our best to go out and work diligently, but we gotta be smart when the temperature is in the 90's, because the humidity takes it into the hundreds, and it stinks! especially having to wear shirt and tie in it. We were still able to teach, but all of our return appointments from our finding efforts last week fell through. :/ We're still working hard though. No worries! We're also still trying to figure out what we're going to buy today that we can actually use in case the power goes out again. We're gonna buy a lot of bread, peanut butter, granola bars, water, and tuna. mashed potatos for a good day. :D


Other pictures! besides the stormy pictures, one of an awesome view that we found when we were tracting in Glasgow. Also, one of the sticker on the back of my tag that I got from the National Day of Prayer last year. It originally just said "I Prayed" but I put the "to know" part on there to say that I prayed to know that these things are true. I thought it was cool I took the picture because its got the red, white and blue on there and thought it would be cool for the 4th coming up. We'll see how that goes. NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN! Gah!

Love yall!

~Elder Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

tender mercies!

Things are going pretty good. We had a lot of success tlast week, and really witnessed some tender mercies in our finding. It's nice to find people who are actually genuinely interested. AND who know what theyre talking about. It's the best thing in the world to a couple missionaries to meet someone that can legitimately have a religious conversation, without it getting heated. It's awesome! One guy was really cool, because he had a ton of awesome questions, and as he let us answer them, he started to realized that we might be able to answer all his questions. So although we had to get headed, he asked us to come back, and he's apparently excited to have us back, according to his less active mother.

Elder Confer and I are doing awesome. He's such a cool, funny kid, and we love to make jokes as we flex our "muscles" and say "Someone call the vet, because these puppies are SICK!" and other things like that. Hahahaha Everyday is an adventure! We might be parting ways here in 2 weeks, with transfers coming upon us once again. It's crazy how much faster time is flying now that I'm getting to the end of my mission. I dont like it. Also, I found out that my trainer, Chris Moen, is engaged! WHAT?! Apparently he's engaged to a recent convert in Morgantown. Good for him, for sure, and I truly hope to be there for it. Maybe even to take pictures if he lets me. We'll see. Haha

We had a specialized trained a couple weeks ago. It was a really awesome meeting, and President Pitt watched Elder Confer and I teach, and he sent us a letter telling us how awesome he thought we were doing. It really helped me a lot because we're in a tougher area since people are scarce, and people are generally uninterested, so teaching and baptized is scarce too. It's good to know that we're doing good in the sights of President and Christ even if we're not getting the success that we're hoping for.

Well, other than that, everything is just the usual. We're just knocking on doors and doing what we do. Love ya'll!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

not a whole lot happened this week :/

Well, not a whole lot happened this week, unfortunately. We were sick this week, and could only work a few hours at a time. But, we worked hard regardless, and we were still blessed. It was really awesome being able to finally teach some English speakers. Haha. One of them also speaks Spanish, but thankfully prefers English.
Also at church, there was a girl that just showed up. She had been to church at the BV ward a couple times, but her friend that she went with moved to Provo to go to school, and is now in Spain on a learning abroad trip. Plus, she hasn't been in years, but she decided to just come. It's quite awesome. Hopefully she will be able to get permission from her mother to learn from us.

There wasn't a whole lot more that really happened. Haha. It's too bad. But hopefully more will happen this week. Love yall!

Elder Shain C Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

Things are going good. All of our investigators are currently Spanish speakers and so it makes things really interesting. Whenever we go over to teach them, we take with us a couple spanish speakers to translate for us since we obviously lack the spanish speaking ability. It's interesting because although we can teach, we're not able to create any sort of relationship with them, and then also theres all the little things that someone might say in a lesson that could clue us something as to what they need, but whenever our translators translate for us, they just summarize what they said, and we dont get the details. It makes it so that we have to go in  and teach 100% by the spirit, and it's tough. But totally worth it because we started to bear testimony and it totally filled the room with the spirit.

And one of them, Luz, totally felt it. The amazing thing is that her name means "light" which in a gospel context isn't light by which we see an object, but at the same time it is how we're able to "see" things in a gospel perspective. That's why when Brigham Young was talking about the "Man without Eloquence," he said that when a simple man that had no talent for public speaking could only say that he knew that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that mans testimony filled him with light. It's an incredible thing, and something I definitely something I want to study more about.


We had an awesome experience being in a parade on Saturday. I just can't get away from them. It was my 3rd on the mission, and we might be in the July 4th parade too! What we did was we got into a back of a pickup, and stuffed it with cold water bottles and ice-pops. Then all four of us would go grab a bunch of stuff and pass it out to people that were watching the parade. It was way cool, and was an awesome way to be charitable with no strings attached, which everyone seems to thing that it's meant to be. Just to assure myself that charity is meant to be no-strings-attached, I read 1 Corinthians 13 and Moroni 7, which together explain perfectly what it means to be charitable.

I love being a missionary. It's great. :D

Pictures:
Elder Confer and I before service
Myself with an ex companion of Fletcher's
Myself preparing to cook
Us with the Rockbridge Elders "doing service" at a childrens park called Boxerwood, and then getting a picture with a prop there. :D


Love Elder Wiederholt!
888 Oakwood rd ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

Stone henge in Virginia??

This week has been awesome! We've found a couple people that we're really excited to start teaching. It's really amazing how Heavenly Father blesses us when we do something as simple as a fast, too! It's crazy, even just yesterday we fasted as a zone of 18 people, all for us to be able to find people that are really prepared. Well, that was only yesterday, and we ended our fast at dinner with some members and the zone leaders. We left dinner, stuffed of course, and went on our way to an appointment like 30 minutes away. We were a little late, and it fell through, so we made our way home to take our studies.

A house that's been standing out to us was along the way home, so we stopped there and knocked on the door. It was in the middle of no where, and we had no idea what we were gonna say or do. Well, we didnt have to do anything, she spoke first, introducing herself. It sounds like its not a big deal, but if you've been a missionary, you know how rare that is. She then started asking all these awesome questions, and told us that we were lucky to stop by right then, because she just got back from a week-long trip in DC. Oh yea, she was visiting the temple's visitors center. TOTALLY ELECT. 
It's just so crazy how if we put faith in a sacrifice that we make, even if its something small, like a couple meals, and hold through to the end, the blessings will come. And not just blessings like everyday, mundane things that we thank God for, but legitimate miracles. What are the chances that would've just happened. Also, we keep running into people that speak ONLY spanish. It's great, but we cant talk to them. They welcome us back and we teach them with a translator. I kind of wish that I took Spanish in High School now. Haha. Oh well.

Last pday we went to a little thing in our area called the Foam Henge. It's actually not little. It's a life-size replica of the Stone Henge and its also in the middle of no where, like most things out here. There's a famous artist that makes all these sculptures out of foam and makes them completely public. He usually does some awesome April's Fools day jokes. This year, there was a 40 foot russian submarine just hanging out in the Maury River right next to BV. Anyway, he's a way awesome guy, and his daughter, Sunny, is investigating the church right now. He might be next. Watch out Mark Cline! Haha, just kidding. I'll attach pictures!

Oh yea, a dragon fly landed on my leg and stayed there as I walked for 10 minutes. I got a picture of that too.

Well, those are the highlights of the last week. Sure do love ya!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

2754 Maple Ave C-9

Buena Vista, VA 24416

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

Dearest family,

Things are going alright. We found 5 new investigators last week. Unfortunately, 3 of them being a family, are wanting to drop us. They agreed to read and pray, and we're praying really hard for them as well. Hopefully things change.

Transfers are tomorrow as well, which is why we're emailing today. Elder Confer aren't going anywhere, but we're getting a ton of new missionaries around us. Some of them are missionaries that I've been close to since the beginning of my mission, including my 3rd companion is now my new Zone Leader! I'm way excited because we share a ward, and he's such an awesome guy.

Just some pictures about us all doing some service at a member's home by sanding their deck. It's an incredibly slow process. Also a picture of a Cicada. We also did some other service with some members by cleaning up someone's house and yard. There were some pretty ronchy things that we saw. Yikes!






Love ya family!
~Elder Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

the hotter the fire, the harder the steel

Things are going pretty usual right now. It seems like I'm learning more than ever that life is constantly a roller coaster with its ups and downs and turn arounds that tend to make us sick. It's kind of funny example, but its so true! We're definitely facing one of those down-times. We're working really hard, and because of the kinds of people in our area and other reasons, we aren't seeing the success that we'd like to see. We're finding plenty, but we're not teaching at all. We're doing our best at keeping our spirits up, and working diligently and our ever improving obedience. I know things will be alright, and I know that these things are making Elder Confer the missionary that he needs to be for the rest of his mission, and making me the missionary that I need to be for the rest of my mission and the rest of my life. It's like our mission president said in his mission-wide email today, the hotter the fire, the harder the steel. It's so true!

We had a pretty cool experience this week, where we were out working in a storm. Nothing was going through, and it was dumping and really didnt want to be out in it, but we were far out from our place, and we knew that going in early isnt an option, even if we had already gone our daily mile limit. We prayed about it, and I opened my planner to some notes that I had taken in church from a talk, about When Christ went onto a boat and his disciples followed him. The next thing that the scriptures said was that there arose a great storm. They sure didnt get onto a cruise ship. And disciples of Christ aren't in for a pleasure cruise. We're here for the hard work, and to endure the storms! So as I read that we felt prompted to knock on the street that we had temporarily pulled over onto. The first guy that answered took a book of mormon, and opened up about how he doesnt believe that God answers prayers of his because god is tending to his other children in the world. The next door that answered told us to come back. In between those two doors was a little old lady that we talked to a couple days later that now thinks the world of us. After we endure the storms and call on Christ, he calms the storm, and then we get the cruise.

That storm caused flooding in the town that we were in, and the next day is when we found out about the bulk of it. One lady said that she was too stressed to talk to us, and we didnt even get to say who we were. We somehow started talking to her and she brought up a concern about how she grew up believing in God, but now she wonders why if there was a God, why would he do bad things to children, and why take away so many of her loved ones, and flood her home 3 times, and give her seizures, and all these other trials. We read Alma 14 with her, and told her that God will allow for the wicked to do bad things to the righteous so that judgement will be just to the wicked, and we also read 1 Nephi 11:17 about how God loves us, but we dont know the reasons for everything that he does. She took the book of Mormon from our hands, and told us to come back on Friday. Unfortunately, she had to cancel because she had another family member pass away unexpectedly on Thursday, and had to reschedule for tomorrow.

Things are happening here, but we're unfortunately not humble enough to realize that everything happens in God's time, and definitely not ours. Hopefully he will be alright with our area just EXPLODING in the next week or so, then we can teach a bit, and get this new missionary some experience!

Sure do love ya'll!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt
888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

PS, we're going to be moving again here shortly, so sending mail to the mission address would be best. :D

lovin virginia!

Well some pretty sweet stuff is really starting to go on here in the good ole virginia. We really are out in the middle of no where though. It seems that my calling in life is to train new missionaries in the boonies. Haha. Nothing wrong with that though. I really do love it here. Lexington is like the ONE area that I really knew about before my mission, and the ONE area that I wanted to come to before I came out. So it's truly a blessing to be here. The people here are so sweet. The members are awesome too. The ward is really diverse. We have a world famous author who also does stuff for Sports Illustrated, and we also have people who cant read. We have farmers and we have lawyers, people from Germany, Utah, Canada, Africa, the Philippines, and even Oregon! This place rocks! Speaking of Oregon, I took a picture with the dreads and hat thing from Jamaica that I got my birthday, with my Oregon shirt and sweet shades. I thought it would be somewhat appropriate.

We just found a guy thats about 20, and is from Mexico. He doesnt speak a lick of English, and understands just a little. We got a return appointment and gave him a Spanish Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlet. We taught him the next day, and we brought a lady in the ward who can speak spanish. It was a sa-weet lesson. We would really just tell the member what to teach, and she would teach it. So she did all the talking, and it made it really one-on-one with the investigator. Something really awesome is that he read parts of the Book of Mormon down in Mexico, and has been to church before with some friends down there. He was since lost all contact with those friends, but he remembers the good feelings he had at church. He now takes the Book of Mormon with him to work and reads when he gets frustrated so that he can feel calm. Soo cool! We left him a movie called "The Testaments" and he said that he would watch it, since he can watch it in Spanish, and it'll give a little bit of the story that's in the Book of Mormon.

We had a really sweet experience last night as well. We were at a family's place for dinner, and they had some friends over as well. The man that was over, was not a member of the church, but his wife is. He's also not terribly happy with the church for whatever particular reason, and so we decided to really take it easy. We had dinner, and the Krouts, who fed us, were really interested in my last name, and said that they would do some genealogy research on my last name and the name of my father, which is Liffring. They're professional genealogists, so I was stoked for the offer. Also, for our though, we watched one of the Bible Videos, about the Easter message and showing bits and pieces of Christs life, really highlighting the atonement, crucifixion and resurrection. We then shared a verse form the Book of Mormon: Omni 1:26 "And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved." The spirit was way strong, and we ended with singing a hymn, I believe in Christ. It was way sweet.

Sure do love yall!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt
2754 Maple Ave C-9
Buena Vista, VA 24416

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

Just a quicky today!

Unfortunately we have a ton to do today! We're also a little late because we had to move to another apartment and the lady with our keys was like an hour late. Haa..

So this week was good. We're starting to finally get a teaching pool started, and we're starting to really figure out the area a lot more. It's good because we can stop accidentally tracting into members when theyre having dinner. I feel so bad because then they feel obligated to feed us and then our entire night gets blown out of the water. We'll stop doing that. Also I got a new camera for my birthday that I'm absolutely STOKED to have. Thanks family! I'll be sure to put it to good use!

I sure do love ya'll but I all the sudden can not think of anything else to say! AAHHH!
Pictures!

Some really cool fields and mountains. Eating lunch with another missionary out in the middle of no where while his companion was in a leadership meeting in Charleston. We took a nap in the car for the rest of our lunch hour. :D Our thank you cards for dinner! WAFFLES!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

2754 Maple Ave C-9
Buena Vista, VA 24416

888 Oakwood Rd ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

Welcome to Lexington Virginia!

Well, my newest companion is a brand new missionary named Elder Confer. He's a way cool kid from Vegas, and he is one heck of a goof-ball which might be why we were put together. This area is way sweet too. We share a ward right now with the zone leaders and as the school year starts back up at the end of the summer we might be covering a student ward. Right now though, we really have a ton of boonies that we cover. Really. Our only town with streets and homes reasonably close enough to tract is a tiny town called Glasgow, 20 minutes away which is filled with people mostly comfortable or bitter. We do have a pretty solid potential there right now, and so we're really hoping that she'll go through with the appointment that we have tomorrow.

The coolest thing about this area is that The ward has recently been thinking a lot about reaching out to a group of people in a town called Collierstown. It's hardly a town, since its so spread out. In fact its just a collection of hollers and boonies within a 10-15 mile radius of a church, and thats Collierstown. Anyway, it's way sweet. Because there's a HUGE amount of members there that all went less active like 20 years ago when their little branch got invaded by members from out west, then got turned into what is now the Lexington ward. Their little church building(which I'm sending a picture of myself in front of) was shut down, and they were told to go to the new stake center. They didn't like that too much, and now are no longer too bitter, but just out of the habit.

Anyway, the ward has asked us to reactive these saints and baptize their families. The ward would grow a ton. Hopefully we can do that, because it's a ways away from where we live in Buena Vista. The miles part is quite unfortunate, and thankfully we havent been told quite yet what our milage limitation will be. :/ It's way sweet thought, because the members here already love us, and are excited for us to be here. The bishop said that the choice of President to put us here is an answer to their prayers. We're quite excited to see what the Lord has in store for us.

Something awesome(sort of) is that we have a SA-WEET apartment. It's brand-spanking new, and the washer and dryer not only have power buttons, but they sing a little jingle when they turn on. It's sweet! It's per-furnished, and it has red-leather couches and glass tables. 2 bad things, we dont feel too comfortable in an apartment this nice, and we have like nothing as far as dishes and utensils and stuff go. Haha. We're working on that.


Other pictures I'm sending:
One of me with the church building. One of us driving in our brand new Toyota Corolla. One of me looking at a giant dinosaur statue in Glasgow. One of some beautiful scenery on our way to Collierstown. And one of me, my trainer, the two missionaries that I've trained, and a new missionary that is now with someone else that my trainer has trained. We have some rockin' posterity in this mission. We're a legendary family. Haha

Love ya'll!
Elder Shain C Wiederholt
2754 Maple St A-2(We move into C-9 on the 30th of this month)
Buena Vista, VA 24416

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310
Charleston, WV 25314

Transfers week!

Well, I am going to Lexington, VA! It's like right next to Buena Vista, and I'll be working in a good sized family ward, and with a lot of the students in the Summer when the student wards consolidate. I'll also be training. I'm incredibly excited because the Zone Leader area in Lexington is being split up as well, and my new companion and I will be doubled into the area. The church has also set up a singles stake there, the first out side of Utah. We're going to be working a lot with the new stake president specifically.

I am kind of sad to be leaving Clarksburg, and my calling as a Zone Leader. I'm trying to get used to the fact that I wont be seeing a good chunk of all the missionaries that I know until after the mission sometime. That part really stinks, and also I ally enjoy teaching the missionaries, but alas, these things do come to an end, and others must come in and continue to build up the mission. I'm just getting to old for this! Haha

I found a really awesome guy here last week. His name is Eric Liller, and he has got to be the most prepared man I've ever met. He enjoys reading the Book of Mormon, and will tell us all about what he's read in great detail. We gave him a quick church tour shortly before church started on sunday(oh yea, and he came to church!) and he pointed out the painting of Joseph Smith getting the priesthood. He explained it to us! He even used the word Melchezidic! I know the name is in the Bible, but people hardly know how to say it, IF they know what it is or where it is in the Bible. We're really excited for him. We also found a spanish family, so we're gearing ourselves up for that. We need some spanish supplies first. Haha

A member gave us a whole bunch of animal pelts. I took the Raccoon one. It's pretty sweet. Elder Kelsch took a fox pelt.

Pictures:

One of Us figuring out how to change the tire. They keep popping on us! Where ever I go! Also One of Elder Kelsch and I with an investigator's daughter and her friends. The daughter is on the right side of the picture. For some reason, the boy was in a dress. It was possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen. Another one of us with our guts. I need to start doing more sit ups in the morning, and a little less Taco Bell. OH! We went fishing last pday! And I caught the first fish and thats my trophy! Haha My companion says that I totally look like someone from Oregon. Maybe its the sweet Oregon shirt that I got on :D

Love yall!

~Elder Shain Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

quite exhausted

Well things are good. We went fishing this morning with a member, and I caught the first few fish, but didn't catch anything else except weeds and sticks for the rest of the day, which was kinda frustrating. I should be content, but of course its something I'm constantly working on it seems.

Easter was good. We all woke up and listened to a compilation of testimonies of the prophets regarding Christ, then watched Lamb of God, one of the churches DVDs that they've made. We of course then went to church, and we were essentially the sacrament program. Haha. I was leading the music, and I don't know why but oh well, and said the closing prayer, and the bishopric member who was conducting surprised all four of us by announcing that we were going to be singing a hymn. SURPRISE!
Elder Kelsch and I later on taught the 9, 10, and 11 year old class in primary. I've never had this happen before, so it was interesting. After church we went to dinner with a family called the Stewarts. Bro Stewart is the one who took us out fishing today. We had some awesome pulled pork burritos and then did an egg toss thing. It ended up just being an egg fight with boiled eggs. Well, more like a contest to see who could hit me with the eggs. Hahaha I didn't get hit so that's good. We finished the night with some good ol fashioned teaching.

Not a whole lot more to report. My mission President is likely going to be sending me and a new missionary to Russell to build up the area. Next transfer in May one of the assistants will go to Ashland and train as well. Not sure thats the plan, but he and I talked about it in interviews a week ago and we already know I'm leaving here. Haha, we'll see, and I really hope so!

Well, sure do love ya!

~Elder Wiederholt

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

I wont see it until I believe it

I wont see it until I believe it. I have got to say that one of the things that I'm learning about everyday is alway faith. What it is, how it works, where it begins and ends, what the difference is between faith and hope. These are all things that I've been pondering about and learning more and more about so that I can be more effective as a missionary and servent of God. General Conference this last weekend really helped me a ton. We're encouraged to go in with a couple different questions that we need answered. Those can be doctrinal, about life, direction, whatever we need to become better people. Well I went in with 5 questions, and each of them were answered two-fold. It is pretty awesome. The talks by Elder Packer, Holland, and a few others all hit home pretty well. There was one talk, the third one on saturday morning, that was about the Doctrine of Christ and the difference between being active in the church but not in the gospel. There was another one about writing missionaries, I especially loved that one! ;D

Things here are going well. The ward that I'm serving in participated in a multi-church basketball league to help create unity with the churches in the area. I won the championship, 5-0. It was a ton of fun, and we got to know a ton of awesome guys. We might start teaching one or two of the non-member guys that were on our team. All three of us also made brackets for MArch Madness for the fun of it. I didnt know what I was doing, so it was quite butchered. Haha

Its weird to think that we already have two weeks left in the transfer. It'll be here before I know it. I have no idea what might happen, so I guess all is in the Lord's hands now.

Love ya'll! Have a wonderful Easter!

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

790 Locust Ave

Clarksburg, WV 26301

Mission Office:

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston, WV 25314

[No Subject]

Well our many duties of Zone Leaders are beginning to catch up with us once again. We're going on a couple exchanges every week, especially with missionaries that are having a tough time. We're also driving down to Charleston tomorrow for Zone Leader council. As much as I like Charleston, Zone Leader Council can be a little long at times. That's alright though, it's really not too bad.

The area up here is way sweet. The people are completely different from when I was in Charleston, and it's definitely more of what people think of when they think of West Virginia. There's a lot of people up here that are unfortunately hooked on drugs, and its tough to watch because there's not a whole lot we can do for them. There's a lot of cool people though, hooked or not.

The ward is especially cool. We were asked to sing a special musical number on Easter yesterday. The other three aren't very excited at all about it, but I dont mind it. I think it'll be pretty fun, especially since I haven't been in choir or anything like that since I was home.

For the pictures I'm sending, we went to Fairmont, WV for a district meeting, and afterwards went to lunch at a members restaurant. Three of us got these HUGE Gondolas. It was absolutely delicious. Hmmmm. Theres another picture of us just in the car. I'm definitely watching the road by the way. A sign the Elder Kelsch and I found on the way to Kingwood that said "If you read, Then you Know." It was way sweet. We also found a church that says "God loves you" on the top. The last picture is my study desk. It's kinda messy right now, and I dont know where the hat came from, it was there after I got back from an exchange in Fairmont. Haha.

Love yall

~Elder Shain C Wiederholt

790 Locust Ave

Clarksburg WV 26301

888 Oakwood Rd Ste 310

Charleston WV 25314