October 26, 2015

I love Mickey!!!!

This week has been delightfully hard. I got a new companion Elder
Powell. He is a good kid. We got a brand new Toyota. A bright red one. Its
so....red. Leading an area is pretty crazy. Much more work than I
imagined. The first few days were very hard because I was pretty much
making the plans and doing the driving because Elder Powell didn't
know who or what or were anything was, but after a lot of prayer I got
through it. We met with KayTee and boy that was an intense lesson. The
way he was asking us questions was as if he was giving us a final exam
before he kicked us out and and told us not to come back. Mickey was
there and he shared his story of how he almost committed suicide  UT
the elders knocked on his door and basically saved him and when they
taught him he knew the church was true. KayTee sat there and asked the
big question. "Imagine a dart board and every church threw a dart at
the board. Some are way off and some hit it close. Do you believe that
the church of Jesus Christ is the exact center. The big red
bullseye.?..." After a long pause he exclaimed. Yes KayTee I do. From
what I have learned and feel, the church is true. After that his whole
attitude changed. He went back to how he usually acts, at ease and
well...normal. When Mickey said that, the spirit flooded the room and
I couldn't help but tear up. I thought of job much faith he had. He
has been a member for 3 or 4 years and I have been in it my whole
life! He is strong and firm. Nothing can shake him. That is how I want
to be. Another day we come back from a long meeting. We both have a
dark feeling to leave our house and go. We went to the church. Mickey
was there printing the programs for Sunday. He talked with us and said
that he was glad we listened. He then left. We go out to he car and I
realized that my bag and iPad got locked in the library. We call
Mickey and he comes back with ice cream for each of us. He said that
he knew we we had a bad day so he wanted to make it better. I don't
know if he will ever understand what he means not just to me but to
everyone. I thought about what makes someone do these kind of things.
It is the love of Christ. If we truly love Christ then we show it to
others. May we all have this love. Then we can all be like him...and
Mickey. The best mission leader ever. I also have learned a great
lesson. The talk I have seemed to use the most this week is from this
conference. Living a Christ centered life. I thought about what was
holding me back. I thought, we'll I'm doing good what I should right?
Praying reading churching. What's missing. Little things get in the
way. We each need to choose one side. Good or bad. No in the middle.
He things that hold us back are the little things like phones,
friends, games, food, infatuation, popular TV shows. In the end we are
accountable. Do we want to say we were kept from being our best
because of one of these tiny things? Sounds harsh but unfortunately
true. I learned this the hard way. We cannot do our best if we are not
in it all the way. I have a talk I want to send later. It best
explains what I mean.

I love you all and hope that your week has been merry and filled with
delight. If not, see what you can do to fix it. Love you.

Elder Weight

October 19, 2015

In the words of Elder Richins, waiting for transfer calls is like playing Russian roulette with yourself... It's not fun. When we finally got the call Saturday, I was relieved to know that I am staying in Livingston...however Elder Richins will be leaving. He was a very good influence on this little place. The people liked him a lot and he has done a lot of good here. I will miss the guy. He helped me out with this whole missionary thing and I am very thankful for that. We have no idea where he is going though. I think the bigger question is...who is going to be my new companion? Wonder what he will be like. Hopefully we will work well together. Any who, this week....
 
This week our main goal has been trying to go and visit all of our potential and other investigators to see if they are really interested or not. "Cleaning the Area Book". Unfortunately we dropped a lot of people.  Some people have creepy houses and almost every house has a no trespassing sign on it. It is crazy sometimes. We tried to go to this one home and on the way up there was this big old black sign and it had a skull and crossbones on it that said dead end no trespassing. We attempted to go up but then we felt super not good about it. We then turn around and stop to see where to next. The guy and his wife
pull up next to us and he looked super unfriendly...he gets out and stands right next to the car...and when he found out that we were missionaries....he basically said YOU BOYS ARE MEN OF GOD!! Come back and see us. How bout dat. Huh?
 
The best lesson we had so far was with KayTee. We began to teach him about temples. For whatever reason we were extremely jumpy and almost nervous. But then I felt that we were blessed with the help of the Lord. After he helped us calm down, we were able to teach him about what he truly needed. We talked about a lot of various questions. We touched on polygamy and blacks and the priesthood. We also talked about some very deep doctrine with him. Things we didn't even know such as the role of our heavenly mother and owning our own world's and all sorts of difficult things to answer. For some we told him that things like that dont matter right now. What matters is knowing the simple facts and basics first. He agreed with that.
 
We gave talks in church yesterday. They were very successful. I wanted to tell my favorite stories that I have heard so far. One is president Uchdorf’s A Summer with Great Aunt Rose. I read that one first to
everyone. I loved that story because of its great example of faith, hope, and love. The next story I read was actually one someone gave me at the MTC. It is entitled The Room. It is a story that really makes you think and brings tears to my eyes each time I read it. I will include that in a separate email so you can read it. Please read it. It isn't long and it will do you good.
 
I am very grateful that I am not transferred...the main reason why is because I don't have to pack up all my stuff. Whew. That is what our p day will be today though....packing and cleaning. Even if neither of us would be transferred we still would need to go down to transfer meeting because we are retiring our old 2011 ford fusion for a new 2016 Toyota Corolla. And guess who gets to drive it first? Me!
 
We have been doing our best here but as always there is room for improvement. Hopefully the new guy here will be able to get whipped into shape and he will do things country style. Love you all and my
prayers are with you.
 
Elder Weight~

true that

in the library...

the two things that are everywhere in the south...church and dairy queen. And they usually are close together...how convenient!

It's okay....I got an eye patch.  Just call me Elder Pirate.

October 12, 2015

I wish I could say that this week has been the best week ever... But it wasn't. It wasn't horrible though, I don't mean to sound so  pessimistic. We had a hard time trying to get a hold of people and teach really solid lessons. And my eye had a freak attack on me. I look in the mirror and it is all swollen. I had to go to the doctors and get the thing checked...it was only a sty. I'm okay though. It is just ugly lookin. It's alright because I got an eye patch. I wore it goes little bit. We went to this one man's home and when he gist saw me he was very intimidated and impressed.
 
During our exchange Elder Ruoho was with me. It went okay. We met probably the coolest 18 year old in Livingston. He was a fair referral and he wants to know more about the church. I wish you guys could meet him. I wish you could meet all these people.

The greatest success we had all week was inviting KayTee to be baptized. He did not agree right away. He said he would pray and ask if that is what he needed to do. He is very sincere in wanting to be on the right path. He is having hard times right now though in response to his meeting with us. Weeks get hard, time seems to be in short supply, stress increases. Yet somehow he is pushing through, and he is not even where some of us are. Somehow he is an example to me and I am the one teaching him! He reminds me of what I need to do by his actions and that is constantly be praying, reading the word, and
diligently searching for the truth. Once we find he truth, we aren't done. We are far from done. Finding the truth is the first step in the thousand mile journey of perfection. As KayTee has encouraged me by his faithfulness, I encourage you, once you find the pathway of truth, don't stop and take a rest, keep walking...no...keep running. Running and shouting for joy all the way back home.

This week I have learned a few things. Other then what I have learned from KayTee, I have had a great awakening to accountability. I found dead that this subject was the main topic for my study a few days in a row. I have loved this section from preach my gospel accountability does not come only at the end of your mission. It is a principle that influences how you begin, how you think and feel about the responsibility the Lord has given you, how you approach your work, and how well you endure. The attitude you have toward your mission experience is a reflection of your love toward your Heavenly
Father and His Son and your respect for the priesthood. As you pray personally and in your companionship, seek inspiration on what you should do each day. As you follow your plans, pray and ask the Lord for guidance. Have a prayer in your heart throughout the day that the Spirit will help you know where to go, what to do, and what to say. Ask yourself, “What more can I do?” In your prayer at the end of the day, give an accounting of your work.

In asking myself, what more can I do, you always somehow find more good to do. Every minute is a privilege, not a rite. That is not exclusive to missionary work, it is for every moment on this planet. For one day we will stand before the Lord and give an account of everything we have ever done. Take the challenge with me to make every moment a wholesome and righteous one. There is true joy in doing so. Such a promise is evident in Mosiah 2:41

41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

So in the end, while we had little success in our areas, we had success within ourselves. We learned great lessons and Joseph to put our knowledge to action. Even in the darkest times, God will always be there dropping sunshine along the way.

Elder Weight

My eye....ewww!

rainbows!

Another cool house!  I'd live there!

October 5, 2015

This week has been...well...AMAZING!!! We had an excellent exchange with Jamestown. Elder Richins went there and stayed with Elder Wilkinson and Elder Draper came down with me. Guess what that ment. I got to drive!! I was very rusty at the beginning. It took a while to get out of there place and get back to Livingston. But after awhile I got the hang of driving again. The roads here are horrible! They are probably big enough for an extra large horse and wagon. I also had the chance to lead the area! That was a cool adventure.

We planned to go and see KayTee again. I gave Elder Draper the rundown of what was going to happen and we planned on teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ And Invite him to be baptized. While we were in there talking to him we somehow began talking about drugs and drinking. He said that he knew that this like smoking and illegal stuff was bad for you but he argued that drinking is not a sin. Drunkenness is though. He also questioned about Christ and how he drank wine and all that. I had a strong impression to talk to him about the word of wisdom. As we did so, the spirit penetrated the room and filed all of us with assurance that it was true. We spoke with voices of thunder yet with a spirit of love and tenderness that was extraordinarily powerful. At the end we talked about commitments and committed him to live the word of wisdom. He said that he would stop everything. He loved to drink tea and that was something he was going to need to work on but he said no more and that he would live it 100%. I can't find the words to explain how rare and how amazing all of this is. Things like that rarely happen. I'm just grateful for his devotion to this gospel. It makes me want to be better myself.

The next day we had interviews and curator meeting at the same time. I had to give a training which is very hard to do when everybody is walking in and out of the room to have their interview. However I persevered. All went well with mine and I got to teach president the restoration. He laughed when I told him that I knew that this was coming. I did very well though which I am grateful for.

This week was pretty stellar. Even though we almost died trying to put
up shelves in Mickey's house, it was great. General conference was cool.
Three new apostles. How about that? I was worried for President Monson.
He was struggling during his talk. He looked like he was going to pass out. One of my favorite parts was during the priesthood session. I loved Elder Anderson's talk. Can I say one thing? Give Brother Joseph a break! Love it. We are going on another exchange today actually. That should be cray cray. I can't believe I just said that. Anyway good week this week. My goal is that this week will be better. Love you all!

Talk yuns later,

Elder Weight

We went to the dam one day.

Studio C...ha ha!

Our members gigantic dog with Elder Richins...He thinks he's a lap dog!