More Clanton Photos

Elder Henderson and I at the Birmingham Temple. He's a bit shorter than me.

This is Daisy - a lady we visit in the nursing home. She is the sweetest.

Elder Henderson, Sister Duncan, Sister Casperson and I on Sister Duncan's last Sunday :(

Week of 6/24

I don't have a lot of time to email today because we had to take this huge survey that took like 20 minutes. So I probably don't have a lot of time to respond to your emails but know that I love and appreciate all of you! I love getting all the updates from home so keep sending them even if I can't respond haha.

This week has been great! The new district leader and the new zone leaders came up to Clanton and helped us out a bit! They had a car so it was nice to be able to visit a lot of the people who live far away. They had a meeting the next day in birmingham so they all slept over at our apartment. Of course, at that exact time, our water stopped working. I guess they sent the bill to SLC instead of AL so they just shut our water off! They didn't get it fixed until the next day so just imagine 6 elders in one apartment with no water. HA. The mission is definitely an adventure!

This week we have been getting Jerry ready for his baptism on Saturday! He is so excited. He reads from the book of Mormon every day and says he loves it. Elder Henderson is going to baptize him and I'm going to confirm him and give the talk at the baptism. He has quit smoking for about a week and a half now and he says it's so hard. But he is so strong. It's so cool to see someone completely change because of this gospel! Missionary work is amazing!

The worldwide broadcast thing yesterday was cool, wasn't it? Did you go? I was looking for you when they would pan over the audience haha! It was like a mini general conference specifically about missionary work! I love it! Yesterday I was thinking about faith after reading Alma 32. In Priesthood, the teacher brought something up I had never thought about. He asked "Have you ever regretted keeping a commandment or making the right choice?" It really made me think a lot about faith and planting that seed. If it is a good seed, it will bring forth good fruit. If it is a good commandment, it will bring good things into your life. We just need to have that faith to continue to live the gospel and make the right choices. Plant that seed, don't spit it out and continue to nourish it and it will grow into a massive tree! I can already see my faith growing each and every day. Go read Alma 32 cause it's awesome! I've been reading the book of mormon counting how many times it says faith and I'm up to 131 through Alma 32. So cool!!!

I love you all so much, thanks for everything!!! I am so grateful to have such great family. Y'all are an inspiriation and I think and pray for you every day! I love getting your emails and packagaes and letters, keep em coming! Sorry this is so short but I hope you have a wonderful week! There's a storm a brewin here, so biking home should be fun ;) Look for some more pictures to come this week! Love you!

-Elder Weight

Week of 6/17/2013

Well hello there!

How are y'all doing? Another week gone! So crazy. After this week I will have been on my mission for 12 weeks! So weird. It's already flying by, that's for sure!

I got that book with the missionary references/other religions which was great! A sister in my MTC district actually had one and it'll help a lot. I also got the debit card in the mail? What is that for?! Thanks for all the candy and the letters and stuff. The religion stuff is really gonna help. It's just really interesting to learn about other religions, and also strengthens my testimony of this church. Not bashing on other churches, this is just the only church that really makes sense to me haha!

This week has been great! It's back to being really hot again. It hasn't rained like at all so it's been in the 90's everyday I think. Add the humidity and biking EVERYWHERE, it's really hot. But you just deal with it and push through, right? We have been able to teach a lot of people this week and it's been awesome! It's really quite weird how you think one person will progress and definitely get baptized and another not progress and definitely not get baptized and it completely switches! That lady Tanya that we met at Wendy's hasn't really seemed too interested anymore, but a guy named Jerry we have been teaching should be baptized in two weeks! He completely quit smoking this week just from us asking him too, and yesterday at church, we learned about tithing in Priesthood and right after he asked where he could pay his tithing. So cool!!! He is an awesome person with a huge personality and it's so fun to just talk to him. The Lord really does prepare people, and most of the time, it's not the people you would expect! So if everything goes right, he'll be baptized on the 29th!

I spoke in church yesterday and it was really good, I think. I talked a lot about Dad and also about missionary work. I made it funny and interesting so hopefully they enjoyed it. I kinda wrote it out so I think I'll send you a copy this week! I also sent a few pictures which you should get tomorrow or wednesday.

This week we have found quite a few new/potential investigators. Sometimes you can't tell if people are just being nice or if they really are interested. And a lot of the time they'll just read the Book of Mormon for academic purposes. It's really hard to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon if all you do is compare it to the Bible! You just have to take it as it is with an open heart. I've found it hard to teach some people just because they are SO set in their ways and really don't want to change. There are a few who truly are searching for the truth, I guess I just need to find them! Sorry this has kind of turned into a rant; I don't really know who I'm talking to right now. But! Just read the Book of Mormon "with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ!" And then I know from personal experience that the answer will come!

I hope everything is going well! I love y'all so much and I can't wait to talk to you soon! I've been in Alabama for 5 weeks now and I can't believe it! I'm excited to go to Brazil, and I still practice my portuguese, but I really do like it here. It might not be what I'm used to, but it's still America which means A/C, walmart, heating, and football haha! People love football around here and it's a really good conversation starter. Even if I'm not the biggest Tide fan ha! I've been trying to find souviniers to get ya'll around here but Clanton is not the biggest place in the world...Maybe I'll just have to wait until I get to the airport or something.

Love and miss you so much! Thanks for all the support and love! I hope you have a great week, keep in touch! Tchau!

Love,

Elder Weight

Welcome to the South

Still in Clanton . . .

Hey there!

So this week is transfers and I will be staying in Clanton! Whoop! I could still get my visa at any time and leave but for now I'll be here! One of the sisters in Clanton, Sister Duncan is actually going home this week. She has been having some bad health problems so she has to go home 4 months early. So that's pretty sad but I think she's okay. Her companion Sister Casperson has only been here 6 weeks and she's already going to be a trainer. So crazy. So Whitney Carlson could be coming to Clanton with me! That would be so cool.

This week we went to the temple in Birmingham! It was so cool. It's a beautiful temple but it's tiny. Especially compared to Provo. I'll send some pictures this week. I'm so glad I was able to go to the temple here before going to Brazil. I just love how the spirit of the temple is the same no matter where you go! It doesn't matter who you're with or where you are, you can always feel the awesome spirit that is in the temple. Only being able to go once every three weeks to a temple 45 minutes away really makes you appreciate Utah and the 8 temples within 45 minutes! Haha well close to 8.

By way of teaching/finding people, it hasn't been the best week. People flake out on appointments all the time and it's pretty annoying. Especially when you bike all the way out there and then they aren't home. Meh. But we are doing the best we can with what we have! Biking is tiring but it's better than walking. It would be nice to have a car but we don't and it's all okay. It's been a lot cooler this week. The rain has stuck around so it's still pretty humid, but the sun hasn't really been out too much so it's not quite as hot. It's one thing to have humidity, but humidity AND the sun beating down on you isn't too fun.

So while teaching/talking to people hasn't been too great this week, we've been getting pretty close to a lot of the members. We've been over at Brother Kamerer's a bit and he's a great guy. He's a huge Alabama fan and he's trying to get me to Roll Tide but I won't do it. I think I would pick Bama over Auburn but I'm still a cougar at heart. He told me to start saying I was born a cougar but by the grace of God I Roll Tide. Haha I guess that is true. Funny story, we were at his house yesterday and he has this birds nest in a welcome wreath next to his door. Four birds were living there and it was kinda fun to watch them every now and then. So today we walk up and there's this huge snake all wrapped up in the nest chomping on one of the birds. He had already eaten the other three and was finishing up the last one when we got there. We slowly walked inside and watched him slither away. Pretty freaky haha. I got a video I'll have to show you when I get home. Or maybe I'll be able to send it at one point.

 We've been getting fed more often which is soooo good. They can cook a lot better than us and we usually get all the leftovers. I did make pancakes and syrup with those recipes you sent the other day though! They were delicious. We have food to cook, but we are always so tired/lazy we usually end up cooking frozen pizzas haha. But I got the crock pot so I think we'll start using that! We only get $155 each per month for all our expenses which isn't a ton, but it's enough.

Well, I'm doing well and I love and miss y'all! I've gotten 4 postcards now-I don't know how many you've sent. I also got letters from Jared and Whitney which was nice! I'll write you back this week! I am doing well and working hard! We try to keep up on our portuguese but it's hard. We get language study in every now and then but we don't always have time. We actually met a Brazilian today and were able to talk with her a little bit! It made me realized just how unprepared I am to speak but It'll all be okay! I could understand her pretty well but talking is a different story.

Thanks for all your love and support! I love you so much! I'm so grateful for all y'alls examples in my life. You mean the world to me! Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Weight

P.S. Seriously though, SOMEONE tell me how star trek was :)

Arriving in Alabama

A few pictures from to Chase's visa waiting mission in Alabama

Sister Jensen and Chase on the 5am MTC Shuttle

Arriving in Alabama with Sisters Card and Jensen and Elder Henderson

Where am I and what am I doing here (Clanton AL)

An example of many roads around Clanton, trees on both sides with a beautiful sky.

Miranda, Elder Henderson and me at her baptism!

Elder Larsen (previous Clanton missionary) Sister Duncan and Casperson, Brother Mitchem, Miranda & Elder Henderson at Miranda's baptism.

2 Months down . . . 22 to go

Look at that! It's already been 2 months! At some points it feels like it's been forever but at others I can't believe it's already June!

 

This week went by crazy fast again. Our District Leader, Elder Ingersoll joined us for 2 days this week. He is from American Fork and actually went to Lone Peak. So that's pretty cool! Since we don't have a trainer, he basically helped us out with all the un written techniques for teaching and talking to people and stuff. He helped us find a bunch of new and potential investigators and we should be having a baptism this month! We were at Wendy's when this lady came up to us and basically asked for a Book of Mormon. We didn't have any with us but the next day we went over to her house to teach her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and taught her all about the restoration and the church. The spirit was really strong and she was so open to the message! Her mom is handicapped and her brothers and sisters won't help her out at all, so she basically takes care of her mother. She said she felt like she just wanted to give up until she met us. She says she can't wait to start reading the Book of Mormon and as soon as we brought up baptism, she said yes. So cool. The Lord really does prepare people, we just have to trust in Him that he will lead us to them. This work is amazing and I can't believe how much I've already learned! It's been really hard for me to just go up and talk to random people but I'm getting better and better at it. I still have a long way to go, but it's at least getting less awkward!

 

Let's see, what else happened this week...last Sunday we biked probably like 20-25 miles which was...fun...ish. I am getting better at biking, it just get's really tiring. Especially since it's getting so hot and humid. It's been raining a bit the past few days which you think would help-but it just makes it worse. It makes it about 10 times as humid and 10 times as miserable haha. I'm learning how to just live in sweat cause there's no way to avoid it. The other day we got caught in this big rainstorm which at first was kinda annoying, but then it was actually pretty fun. Life's an adventure, so make it one! I think I have a couple funny pictures I could send you. I hope you got the pictures I sent! Or at least Erica and the kids. I'll send a few more this week.

 

I've gotten 5 postcards so far- SLC and Detroit, then Prague, Czech (i think) and Holland. It was pretty cool to see them all! I definitely need to take a trip to Europe at some point in my life. It looks beautiful. I haven't gotten Dad's email yet, so he'll have to Dear Elder it to me. Mail from Provo takes about 3 days to get here-that includes dear elders. But at least it's not 3 weeks like Brazil is going to be! No word on my visa yet but hopefully soon! I really like it here and I'll be sad to go but Brazil just sounds so appealing right now. Mostly for the weather...they're going into winter right now which means like 70's! Ahhhh. That'll be nice.

 

How are things in Provo, kids? Enjoying summer? Feel free to write or email me! I love getting letters :D I got a letter from Macall this week which was nice and also from a few of my friends. Any mission call news? Seen Star Trek yet? I miss me some Benedict Cumberbatch. That's probably going to be one of my top 5 movies I see when I get back right behind the 2 hobbits :) Eu amo voces! Eu sei que a igreja e verdadeiro. Tem um bom semana! Muito amor! (translation: I love you guys! I know that the church and true. Have a good week! Much love!)

 

-Elder Weight