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