May, 16 2011

Hola,

We had a good week, on Friday we had a baptism. I had the chance to baptized Darren. He is a great kid. There wasn't many people from the ward at the baptism but he had his whole family there and brother Sheiss, who is his home teacher/counselor in the bishopric. His family definitely felt the spirit. He was confirmed on Sunday by our ward mission leader who walked in the door after the opening prayer in sacrament meeting, it was a close one.

On Saturday we went hiking with some brethren from the Spanish branch to celebrate the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood. We went up in the Franklyn mountains a little ways then went out to get pizza.

For the past month or so we've been visiting a old lady from the Spanish branch who has lots of health problems and her son who is not a member. He's been hesitant but he is way nice. Anyways her health kept getting worse and worse and she passed away this past week. I think she was like 135 years old. Anyways, he came to church on sunday with his sister who is a less active member and two other siblings. So I’m excited to work with them.

I think Elder Konelio may be leaving this transfer. I’m not sure.

We’re having a zone olympics today. The El Paso zone is coming over to play volleyball, basketball and soccer.

Tell Hunter’s Mom I send my love.

Love,

Elder Wiest

May 9, 2011

Hola,

This past week we tried to stay pretty busy. We had two of our investigators get interviewed for baptism. They both passed. We should have one of the baptisms this weekend and it should be great.

The Spanish branch had a branch Mother's Day party the other day. It was suppose to start at 6:00pm, so we got there at 6:15pm to help set-up and still had to leave before they brought out the food. Bummer!

We also helped a member move. He is coming from the east side. We helped him unload his UHaul. He works for the border patrol and has some crazy stories.

We played kick ball with the English ward Young Men. Me and Elder Konelio were co-MVPs.

In my first area, we only had 3 active families. One of them was the Sandoval family. Well, they just moved to the northeast and were at the branch on Sunday. It was really cool to see them and they were happy to see some familiar faces, too.

And I got to call the family yesterday via Skype. That was awesome!

Love,


Elder Wiest

May 2, 2011

Hola,

Not much new has happened this week. We still have a bunch of people we are teaching and should have some baptisms coming up in the next few weeks.

One thing I forget to say last week was that we had a cool activity at UTEP. Our district went and helped the Institute pass out Finding Faith in Christ DVD at the college. They had a movie playing in one of the buildings and we were out around campus passing them out. It was pretty fun. It was pretty weird, too, being on a big campus and all.

The Spanish branch is going to start having Family Home Evenings set-up for us each week. I really, really like the Ward Mission Leaders here. They are on the ball. They realize that we were called to teach and they should do the finding. That is so helpful.

Talk to you this Sunday!

Love,


Elder Wiest

April 25, 2011

Hola,

We had a busy week! Saturday we drove up to Albuquerque. We didn't have to find rides this time because we were able to use mission cars, so that was fun. I love road trips. In our car we had me, Elders Konelio, Hallows, Haydon, and Chorak. We met as a whole mission at a stake center up there. I realized I don't even know half of the missionaries in our mission.

They kinda pulled a quick one on us. President Miller went to the airport to pick up Elder Holland and Elder Cook came off the plane. Awkward. I guess Elder Holland had just got back from a 2 week trip to the Middle East and was super worn out. Still, it was awesome and very powerful! We had Elder Cook, Bishop McMullins from the Presiding Bishopric, and Elder Costa who is one of the Presidents of the Seventy.

Elder Cook talked about D&C 31 and told some cool stories. He and Elder Holland were missionary companions (Elder Cook was the senior companion!). It was great. We got to shake all their hands. President and Sister Miller were crying the whole time.

We got another awesome investigator and it's a pretty cool story. We got the referral sent to our phone and we weren't able to go contact it for a few days. When we did go see her, she took a second to get to the door because she was on the phone. Then she answers, "Oh, sorry, I was talking to the people in Utah". I didn't get what she was talking about at first. Then we just started talking to her and I asked how she decided to request the missionaries to come over. This is where it gets cool. She was on FACEBOOK and "Liked" the Mormon thing which led her to see an "I'm A Mormon" video. She said, "I didn't know there were black Mormons. I saw they were so happy so that got me interested". She did the "Chat Now" thing and then started talking to the Sister missionaries in the MTC on the phone and they had been calling her for a week and had sent her the Restoration DVD. "I was waiting for you guys to come." She loves it all. She wanted to come to Church last week but was afraid to go by herself. Her husband had investigated the Church before and liked it but his work made it hard to go. The next day we took her on a tour of the Church with a young couple in our ward. We had a good lesson with her and her husband when he got back in town and then she came to Church on Easter and was sooo excited. She will probably get baptized next month. ALL BECAUSE OF FACEBOOK!

You better post a Mormon video on your Facebook or blog right now! It's sooo easy. That was our miracle of the week. We had a good Easter. Very busy. Lots of food, too.

Love,


Elder Wiest

April 18, 2011

Hola,

The past week has been so good! The work is going so good. We have 7 baptismal dates and they are all pretty solid. Don't count your eggs until they're hatched, but things are going well.

Transfer week is always fun when you don't have any changes yourself because you get to see everyone around you come in and go out. We have a pretty cool zone. My old companion, Elder Steed, is back in my district. That will be fun. He goes home in 5 weeks. We keep following each other to areas.

We went on Exchanges with the Zone Leaders this past week. I went with my good buddy, Elder Hollows. He is the one in the graffiti Jesus picture with me. We had fun. I love him to death.

We got suckered again. We helped some people on the west side move. They had some of the heaviest furniture ever.

I got 3 new ties this week and I bought some brown slacks. They are girl pants and I love them. They are way stretchy. Goodwill specials.

As for the people we're teaching...We have a 9 year-old Mexican boy who is super smart. His Mom is not active but he comes with his Aunt. We have a 10 year-old white boy who loves football and Church. His Mom is in jail so he also comes with an Aunt. Then we have 9, 13, and 15 year-old Mexican sisters. They have 3 other sisters but they're either too young or already baptized. That family is sweet. Then we have a middle-aged white woman who just showed up at Church. Her boyfriend is a member on the east side but she's been coming without him over to our building for about a month now and she loves it. She has a 10 year-old son who is always out playing so we haven't taught him yet but he'll probably get baptized with his Mom. So, those are our main people.

Love,


Elder Wiest

April 11, 2011

Hola,

How are you doing? I don’t even know how to say what I want to. Unfortunately, I’m not too good at writing what I’m thinking. President and Sister Miller called me on Thursday morning, so I’ve known about Kim. I’m sad, but I’m fine. I was so surprised/shocked when they started telling me my Mom called with bad news. All kinds of things started running through my mind. But then they said it was Kim and I was just shocked. Kim is soooo happy right now. Holy cow. I gave a talk in the Spanish branch yesterday and I talked about her... in Spanish. We were assigned the topic of missionary work and I basically talked about how comforting it is to know the things we do as members of the Church and how we need to share that knowledge with others. I know where Kim is and I know who she is with. I’m going to miss her but I’m happy. I’m more worried about all of you guys. I hope Grandma and Grandpa are doing okay.

The work and everything is going so good in the area that that is what fills my mind. Am I lost in the work? I didn’t think that would actually happen.

We set 4 more baptismal dates this last week. We could have more baptisms this transfer than last transfer!

Btw…I’m staying this transfer and I’m staying with Elder Konelio. BUT the best news of the week is…I’m not District Leader anymore! Elder Konelio is. I enjoyed being District Leader but it got old pretty fast. And now I’m also the junior companion again. I’m not going to lie, it feels good. President Miller said I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that he wants Elder Konelio to get the experience.

This next transfer is going to be fun. Some of my favorite Elders are coming into the zone.

Send my love to everyone. Give Will a hug for me. Grandpa and Grandma, too. Our lives are like a super infinite time line. We were chilling with Heavenly Father, we are born, we grow baby teeth, we lose baby teeth, we have our first kiss, we drive a car, we make bad decisions, we get married, we have kids, we make good decisions, we get fat (or skinny), we die, we see old friends and family, we do missionary work, we chill some more, and the time line keeps going. It’s just points on a time line.

I love you. I miss you. I wish I could be there. Smile.


Love,


Elder Wiest

April 4, 2011

Hola,

We were in the 90s this weekend! It's going to be a hot summer.

We had a good week and better weekend. General Conference was great. It's such a nice change of pace. I guess this time next year I should be married...or else.

We also had a baptism on Saturday in between sessions. Her name is April. She is a good friend of a member who got baptized a year ago. She is a cool girl. She thought all the white jump suits were ugly so she bought her own baptismal clothes. It was a nice baptism and we confirmed her the same day.

We keep getting suckered into doing service. Some guy called us up from the east side and said he was moving some "equipment" into a storage unit in the northeast and asked for our help. (I'm going to punch the Elders that gave him our number). He had bought dry cleaning equipment -- like 7 machines that weighed probably 600 pounds each. It took 6 of us an hour and a half to unload them off a big flat bed trailer and into the storage unit.

Today were are having a cookout. Elder Konelio and I marinated some steaks and we are ready to do some grilling.

Love,


Elder Wiest