November 30th, 2015

Hey fam and friends! Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Of course as soon as the weather started to creep out of the teens we got our car back! Best. Day. Ever. I will NEVER, ever take any sort of vehicle for granted ever again. We got our car the day before Thanksgiving, which worked our perfectly because we had a bunch of houses we had to hit up!  I am soooo sick of Thanksgiving dinner and this is why.  Wednesday night we went and had Thanksgiving with the Grays. They are a part member family in our ward. She's the member and pretty awkward, and he is a biology professor, and also pretty awkward.  I'm not quite sure sister Gray understands our purpose as missionaries.  She is always calling us to see if we can babysit her kids while she gets things done around her house.  Missionaries aren't even allowed to hold babies!  Anyways, the food was great and we still love them.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, obviously, and our president told all the missionaries that we needed to do 2 hours of door  knocking in the morning, and after that we could enjoy the holidays with members.  Those two hours were probably the most brutal two hours I have had on my mission thus far.  Door after door was slammed in our face, and people were saying incredibly rude things to us.  After an hour sister Chatman and I stopped and started discussing why President Jacobsen wanted us to door knock on Thanksgiving Day.  We came to the conclusion that by being obedient miracles were going to happen, and they may not happen to us, but they will happen for the mission.  After we worked out a different door approach we turned down the street and saw a man walking towards us.  I said a silent prayer asking God to not have the man yell at us and surprisingly he came right up to us and said, "Are you two Mormons?"  We said yes and then he continued on to tell us that he was a member and was baptized years ago with his mom!  He moved to Bay City a couple of years ago and didn't know there was a church here.  I couldn't believe my ears.  We got his number and address and are going to visit him later this week.  God really does love and bless those who are obedient.  Lesson learned.

Anyways, back to why I am sick of Thanksgiving food.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at The Jaime's, who just "happened" to have some football on that we kinda watched...   We repented later, and then after the Jaime's we went to the Klopfs for another Thanksgiving dinner.  I was sooo stuffed!!

Friday we went to the Guistiniani's for a Thanksgiving lunch (they gave us tons of leftovers to take home as well).  Then Friday night we went to the Campbells and had ANOTHER Thanksgiving dinner.  Get this, Saturday we got invited to, you guessed it, another dinner, but God must have known that we couldn't handle anymore turkey (I don't even like turkey) because the family ended up canceling on us because of some huge family drama that went down.  Needless to say I am Thanksgivinged out, but so grateful for all the generous families who fed us.  We even got to play card games with some of them.  Mainly scum, and now the Elders are called Elder Scum, because they kept losing... suckers.

Sunday was great, we had two families that we have been teaching come for the first time. They both said that they thought it was a little long, but their kids loved it, so hopefully the kids will help keep the parents motivated to keep coming back.  We also had a crazy old lady escape from a dementia house show up at church.  She was a handful to take care of.  She literally escaped the house with her walker and walked all the way to the church to say her Rosary?  She was basically nuts.  The work is progressing, we picked up Katie, Whitney, and Kim last week as new gators (investigators) and I'm excited to see where things go with them.

That's all I got for you, hope its not too boring to read :)  love you alllll

Sister Viehweg

November 23rd, 2015

This morning sister Chatman and I got up and ran in 14 degree weather.  Ohhhhhhh---it was sooo cold. And I know it's just going to keep getting colder and colder here. The weather really took a turn, last week we were enjoying the mid 60s and this week we are lucky to have 25 degree weather with a wind-chill that makes it feel like 10 degrees. Sister Chatman and I lost our car last Wednesday so when the blizzard hit Saturday morning you better believe we were out door knocking in it! I love the snow, so I wasn't too angry about it, but sister Chatman grew up in Washington state so snow is not enjoyable for her, haha!  It wasn't cold enough for most of the snow to stick, but we got a good solid 8 inches. The roads are realllly slick now and we have both fallen a couple times already, can't I wait for more snow...:)

We had a pretty solid week for having no car. It's always tough getting to all your appointments when you have to walk everywhere, and there is nothing worse than walking 2 hours to an appointment only to have them ditch you (Happened twice during the blizzard). Wednesday we had a zone training that President Jacobsen showed up to. It's kind of funny when President J decides to make a random appearance, everyone immediately starts to look around and wonder who got in trouble this time, Haha. Training was good, it was all about how to make the Sabbath day our best day. Sundays are  supposed to be a day of rest, but out on a mission THEY. ARE. CRAZY!!!  Sooo busy and stressful. So the training was good.

Sister Chatman and I went door knocking in the boonies this past week. It's definitely hunting season for these Michiganders. Dead deer were everywhere!  We passed this one garage with piles and piles of dead deer. There must have been over 40 deer in that garage!!  Smelled horrible!!  I guess another thing to do here in Michigan during hunting season is to kill all the squirrels. The squirrels in Michigan look more like large cats, they're HUGE!  And after the rednecks kill the squirrels they cut off their tails and hang them on their car antennas?!!  I don't know, it's the weirdest thing...

The work has been good, a little slower than we would like, but that just leaves time for more door knocking, which I have grown to love. Too many funny experiences happen door knocking, how could someone not like it?  We are still teaching Alajuwan and Kathy.  Alajuwan is now moving into Kathy's dad's house and his dad will be taking care of him because Kathy's daughter, Brandy (that we were teaching) ran away.  I'm still feeling nervous for that little boy.  Jessica is doing well, still needs to get married though.  Donny and Pita are awesome. They both work on Sundays so it's been hard to get them to church. I don't remember anyone working on Sundays when I was growing up, I guess not being in a Mormon community changes things, because everyone here works on Sundays.

I woke up the other night around 3:30am to sister Chatman pulling me out of my bed by my toes!  She was totally sleep-walking, but of course I thought someone was trying to kidnap me!!!  I yelled at her and she woke up and was so confused about what she was doing. I guess in her dream I was handing her a piece of music?  I don't know, but this year I sure am grateful for a companion that I love and get along with.

Can't believe this Thursday is Thanksgiving!!  We have a couple of parties to crash so it will be fun.

I am Thankful for each and every single one of you and hope you have a great holiday!!!  Alma 34:38

Love,

Sister Viehweg

November 16th, 2015

Hello Friends and Family!!   Another good week out on the mission, tomorrow it's my 5 month mark...holy cow it's almost been half a year! Time is flying by, but also standing still. The weather here is really messing me up. I keep bracing myself for the cold, but it never comes. This past week was in the mid 60s and 50s. Seems like everywhere else is getting snow except for Michigan. One member told me yesterday at church that one year it was 72 degrees in Bay City on Christmas! I'm a little bummed. I WANT to see some SNOW! (Famous last words right?)

Sister Chatman and I have been busy busy busy. This week we met with Jessica Cantu and finally put her on baptism date! Jessica has been through so much. Every day we meet with her I am reminded of how lucky and blessed I am to have grown up in the gospel. Jessica is 30, has two kids and has been with her boyfriend, Mike, for 15 years. The only thing holding her back from being baptized in December is Mike--he won't marry her! Everyone here in Bay City does things backwards. No one is married. So that will be our biggest challenge with her, but we have some tricks up our sleeves to pull on Mike, so pray for us in that area!

We picked up another investigator named Tammy, who is in love with us. We had a really good first lesson with her and when we came back a couple days later she was already half way through Moroni 10!  We walked through her front door and immediately hit a wall of burning incense and cigarette smoke. My lungs are going to be so damaged after I get off this mission. I constantly smell like smoke. A couple of the young women yesterday asked me why my bag smelled like cigarettes. ITS NOT MY FAULT!   Anyways, Tammy's entire house had burning incense holders on every shelf. I kid you not the house was hazy looking. Most people here are pretty unsanitary when it comes to their homes, fleas, bed bugs, dust, garbage, cat litter everywhere, dirty dishes, etc., etc. Tammy's problem was fleas....one of my favorites.... We sat down at her table and her cat jumped up on my lap.  My first thought was to chuck the cat across the room, but I refrained and started petting it. Sister Chatman then kicked my leg under the table to get my attention. I looked down at the cat and I could literally see FLEAS CRAWLING ALL OVER THE CAT!  It took all my self control to not freak out.  I calmly pushed the cat off my lap and ended the lesson within the next 10 minutes. We walked out the door and I bolted down the street shaking off my skirt and hair and bag and throwing my coat off. I was SOOOOOO grossed out!  Why do people even have animals!??!

The Guistiniani's fed us again this week, Good Italian food as usual, one day they will stop talking long enough for us to get a spiritual lesson in...  A New Yorker/Italian is never a good mix if you want to get a word in edgewise... The relief society had a good crafts activity on Saturday, I am terrible at crafts so I did my best to enjoy it!  It was fun to hang around all the ladies in the ward, plus a couple of investigators showed up!  We got on the topic of whether or not Mormons can date more than one guy and, Uncle Kelly, I told everyone about how you used to tell me Neapolitan was the way to go with dating and everyone thought it was the funniest thing.  Don't worry I gave you full credit :)

I LOVE EVERYONE!  Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Sister Viehweg

November 9th, 2015

Good Morning!!

To answer your question pops it actually hasn't been getting too cold over here. At the beginning of this week it hit the 70s!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. Everyone in the ward feels a little sheepish because they all have been telling me about how horrible the winters are here after I tell them how much I love winter. We were in short sleeves and short skits Monday & Tuesday, but by the end of the week we had our first frost soooo Winter is coming!

This past week was a lot of work. We have been having problems with a couple of our investigators. I think last week I told you a bit about Mario and how he wasn't interested in learning? Well for some reason we now see him everywhere and our last encounter was horribly awkward.  He came right up to be and said, "Sister V, I will join the church if you marry me."  You can imagine my surprised reaction!  I had no idea what to say so I just started laughing.  I think I hurt his feelings a little bit, because he turned really red and walked away.  What do you do in those situations though!?

Another one of our investigators, Kathy, who was excommunicated a while back, announced to us that she has to go to jail for 30 days starting December 1st.  Kathy is my THIRD investigator to be put in jail while I've been teaching them.  Broke my heart.  We are also working with her 8 year old son, Alajuwan, and he was supposed to be baptized Dec 5th, but it looks like we will be changing that date because the mother definitely needs to be there.  Kathy is handling the news pretty well considering the fact that she will be missing Alajuwan's birthday, potential baptism, and Christmas. Kathy is really all Alajuwan has so we are pretty concerned with how he will be taken care of. All the family they have around are pretty sketchy and irresponsible so hopefully we can get the church to help them out.  Prayers are needed their way ASAP!

On Tuesday we tag teamed a bunch of less actives with the relief society president. Sometimes I get soooo overwhelmed when I look at the ward and see all the members that need our help. How can I possibly help all these people? I kept asking myself this question all throughout the week, but the answer I kept receiving was the same each time, "One person at a time."

My challenge for you all this week is to go and help the  missionaries! If it's feeding them, going to lessons, giving referrals, giving a ride, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING helps!

Other news this week? Not much, a new really cute missionary moved into our area from Idaho and he's a skier who grew up on Bogus so its been fun to talk about home with him.

Sister Chatman and I also found a pet squirrel! ( see pictures) 

Funny story this week

 

We were out door knocking and sister Chatman looked over at a field and said, "Are those boys??? they look kinda short."  I looked at her and said, "You are sooooo desperate sister, They're like 8 years old! Look at the school!"  We were passing an elementary school and the "boys," little 3rd graders, were running around at lunch break. Hahaha needless to say she was a bit embarrassed and I am refusing to let her live it down.

I have so much love for all of you and really do think about you all the time! Enjoy this season and remember what you are grateful for! 

Sister Viehweg

November 1st, 2015

Happy belated Halloween!!!! It's been a good week out here in Michigan!

Transfer calls were last Friday and it looks like I will be spending another transfer here in Bay City with Sister Chatman as my companion! We are more than excited! She goes home in December so it's looking like I will kill her off, which we are both grateful for because we love each other! Another  transfer together was needed. At the end of October things seemed to be falling apart and we needed an opportunity to set some new goals and standards for ourselves. So hopefully this next transfer will end a little better. It was weird writing December down in our calendars! Where has the year gone!?

At the beginning of the week Mario, the really golden Hispanic investigator, dropped us. We were both pretty bummed about that, but it just wasn't the right time for him. At least we were able to plant some good seeds. A lot of the time people will say to us on door steps, "You are wasting your time" but time is never wasted when you are doing the Lord's work. And when one door closes the Lord always opens another one. That night we got a call from Kalle Martinez. She is 16 years old and has been in and out of lessons with missionaries. She called us to ask if we wanted to play basketball with her and her family on Halloween. Of course we said yes, sister Chatman was beyond excited. Kalle's father was excommunicated and his working on being re-baptized and his girlfriend and their kids are all wanting to take discussions and be baptized as well. All last transfer we were trying to build a relationship with this family and had zero luck. The basketball invite was a total breakthrough!

So Halloween rolls around and we are getting pretty pumped to play. I haven't played basketball since freshman year, so you could say I was feeling a bit rusty. Well a bit rusty was an UNDERSTATEMENT!  We show up to play at Kalle's high school and her and her family are all warming up and look like pros...Here I am with my leggings and Nike Frees looking like a complete idiot while Sister Chatman whips our her BYU gear she was sent and new basketball high tops. I couldn't help but think that this was about to get realllll embarrassing. So they split up the teams and there's a missionary rule where comps have to guard each other so I was guarding Sis Chatman who is 5'11". She was stomping ALLLL over me! And my team was full of Martinez's who were pulling out all these plays and sneaky passes. I literally was running around in circles trying not to get in their way. The game was wayyyyy too fast paced for me and soooo hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing and ran away from the passes thrown at me because the dad was CHUCKING THEM at me! Good times though and we built some pretty good relationships. I swear the things missionaries do for people...We will bend over backwards and humiliate ourselves for people.

Last night I held a tarantula!  For those of you who don't know I am soooo scared of spiders so this was very uncharacteristic of me. The spider belonged to a 22 year old in our ward and he practically forced me into it. The tarantula was huge, soft, fuzzy, named cuddles, I was sweating and crying and screaming, and will never do I again.

Love you all, God is Good, and have a good week!

Sister Viehweg

Investigator Sherry

Tarantual

October 26th, 2015

Hey hey normal civilization, how is everything going??? Sometimes... no all the time, I forget that there is a normal life going on outside of Bay City, Michigan, and then I read everyone's emails and I'm thinking "why aren't they out knocking on doors?" So thanks for bringing me back! Once again it's been a crazy week. Why haven't I gotten it through my head yet that every single day on a mission is crazy? 

This week was great, we lost our car last Wednesday so Sister Chatman and I have been on foot. We clocked out our mileage this time and have been averaging 10 miles per day. Two days ago we decided to do a leg work out, because we are dumb, and I still can't walk normally! Yesterday at church everyone kept coming up and asking us why we were limping..so embarrassing.

Paul is doing really well, he loves being a mormon, it's so cute. And he's now helping all the missionaries out. He takes the sacrament to people with the elders and teaches lessons with us. Dad, I don't think you need to worry about getting him anything, he loves online shopping and I'm sure has already ordered everything a mormon could possibly need, including food storage :)

President interviews were this week and that was a little stressful. President Jacobsen holds so much power and still makes me a little nervous. He used to be a coach so he loves all the athletes out here, lucky me, haha. In case any of you are worried, I passed my first president interview with FLYING colors.

Jessica, our new investigator is doing really well. She loves learning about the gospel and asks all the right questions. Makes me feel like im an awesome missionary...HA-HA...  She has been praying a bit, but still feels nervous about coming to church.  Mario, our new Hispanic investigator, came to church yesterday and was a little overly greeted by our Hispanic members. Holy cow, they really know how to welcome a person. Everyone was speaking Spanish and Sister Chatman and I were just standing there awkwardly looking sooo dumb. I took one semester of Spanish in 7th grade, so the only thing I can remember how to say is "where are my pants?" in Spanish. NOT helpful. After church Mario was like, "I haven't felt that at home since I left Mexico." So it's looking promising for him!

Funny stories this week:

Sister Chatman and I offered to help this less active member out at her animal shelter event on Thursday. First off, I hate animals. I think most people know this about me, but if you don't, I really just dislike them. Also Sister Chatman is terrified of dogs because she got bit by one pretty badly in middle school. So as soon as we walked into the shelter we were overpowered with the stench of animals...shocker.  The member, Sister Grimmer, wanted to give us a tour so we started walking around the shelter (this was my first time at a shelter).  The shelter looked like a prison for dogs. Sooooo mannnnny barking dooooogs! It was so loud we could hardly hear sister Grimmer talking. Once I looked over at Chatman and she looked like she was about to cry!  Hahaha-- too funny!  We ended up having to tie bandannas around the dogs which consisted of me getting locked in the cages with a dog, basically wrestling it, while sister chatman watched from the outside. IT WAS TERRIBLE!! We were there for about 2 hours and were completely covered with hair. The cats were even worse, but I don't have time to tell you about them. Stay tuned for next week!  But know that I will NEVER go in another animal shelter again!

More door knocking bloopers:

We knocked on this door and next thing I know a dog is chasing me down the street. FOR ABOUT 10 MINTUES.....I hate animals...

Okay, love you all!  Sorry this is a bit scatter brained, our time was cut again!! 

Sister Viehweg

October 20th- Baptism!

It is definitely fall/winter here in Michigan. The temperature DROPPED to the 40s and 30s this past week and our heater broke! So we have been doing anything and everything we can to stay warm at  night. Hopefully the maintenance men will be able to fix our heater today.

Alright, this week was awesome! Saturday Paul Juarez Jr. was baptized!!! I still can't believe it all happened. It was such a cool experience. Sister Chatman and I had to go to the church 3 hours early to start filling up the font. Due to the pipes being so old we had to turn the water on for 15 minutes and then off for 20 minutes until it was completely full. I don't know why, I don't ask questions, but it took FOREVER. While we were filling up the font we watched all the new addiction recovery videos that the church just released. Those videos are AMAZING! Everyone needs to watch them. And I'm not just saying that as an overexcited sister missionary. A couple of the videos had sister Chatman and I in tears!

Anyways, the font was filled, everyone showed up who needed to be there, and Paul was just too excited. He kept saying he was about to be "bean dipped" because he's Mexican hahaha. Afterwards I asked him how he felt and his response was "extra white, sister." He's too cute and was completely glowing! The next day he came to church to be confirmed and his smile said it all. THIS CHURCH IS TRUE. Not only have I witnessed the spiritual change in Paul since I met him in July, but also the physical Change. Its amazing what the gospel does to people. I have never seen a more happy 52 year old Mexican. Paul has my heart!

We had another lesson with Sarah Goretski and she pulled out this destroyed quad. It was the first book of Mormon/Bible she had ever received and told us that her husky had torn it apart while her and her husband were on vacation 5 years ago. She told us she just couldn't bring herself to throw it away, so of course sister Chatman and I told her we would repair it. I don't know what we were thinking. The dog had literally torn the quad to shreds and slobbered all over it (this is why you should never have animals). So this week we have been taping a quad back together, with scotch tape #soclassy. I will have to send a picture next week. It looks pretty good, but the amount of tape we have used is ridiculous. 

The rest of the week was sooo busy. Sister Chatman and I set another record of lessons this week. I still don't know how it happened. We would go from lesson to lesson and each time I didn't think it could get any harder to get off a couch, but it did.  I have never felt so tired in all my life. Sometimes I walk out of lessons and think to myself, "what did I even say in there?"  There's no way I am carrying out each day without God's help.

I love this work. Its the hardest thing I have ever done, but also the most rewarding thing I have ever done.

Have a great week!

Door Knocking bloopers:

man: " I got back from overseas in 2008."

Sister V: "welcome back!"

man: no response..shut the door

Sister C: "welcome back? its been 7 years sister..."

Sister Viehweg

Lilly Pond

Paul's baptism

Fall leaves

Sister selfie

October 12th, 2015

This week was crazy to say the least! Its been an emotional roller coaster here in Bay City. I'll start out with Paul Juarez, the investigator that was supposed to be baptized this week.

So last week I explained how Paul was struggling and that Satan was all over him. Well On Wednesday Paul met with us and dropped us. He said he had been offended by a member, that the church was bringing him negative feelings, and that he just needed some time and space. Sister Chatman and I left that meeting heart broken. He decided the best thing would be to just leave him alone for two weeks, no communication no nothing. So we did just that, removed him from our record book and stopped responding to all texts. I don't think I have ever prayed so hard in my life that night, but God truly does answer prayers. That night I woke up to a text from Paul at 2:30 am and it said, "Sisters! I want to be baptized on the 17th! I know this church is true, Satan was corrupting my mind!" I got so excited I didn't sleep the rest of the night! We met with Paul again the next day and I guess the cold shoulder for 16 hours really did the trick, he had experienced a complete change of heart. So Paul Juarez will be getting baptized this Saturday!

It was so cute, yesterday during fast and testimony meeting Paul was the first to go up and bare his testimony. He basically told the whole ward that the sisters are awesome, no big deal, and that he is really excited to get to know everyone and join the church. #proudmishmoment   After Paul, all these converts of 30-40 years started getting up and baring their testimonies to Paul telling him that he will never look back or regret his decision. Best Sacrament meeting I have had thus far.

Sister Chatman and I also found this really awesome less active named Sarah Goretski. She converted her Senior year of high school, married an RM in the temple, and started a family. The Husband ended up being a complete jerk to her and her twin boys so she left him and left the church. Sarah hasn't been active or back to church in 7 years and we are the first missionaries she has answered the phone to and allowed to come into her home since. She is GOLDEN, and has been through so much. Breaks my heart about her husband. Apparently he was very verbally and physically abusive to her. Hopefully she lets us come back!

Funny Story of the week.

So this past Saturday we had Tradeoffs so I had to go to Midland to be with Sister Foster, the STL, Midland doesn't have cars at the moment so we were on bikes. This was my first time biking on my mission. All my pride went right out the window as soon as I strapped my helmet on my head and mounted the too small,extremely rusty bicycle with no brakes. All was going well, I was following sister Foster to our lesson when we crossed a road leading into a parking lot. Sister Foster must have been looking down and out of it because she didn't hear me yell for her to stop. SHE GOT NAILED BY A CAR PULLING INTO THE PARKING LOT! It all happened so fast. The car hit her front tire and flung her like a rag doll on top of the car all over the windshield! I couldn't believe it, and had no brakes, so I couldn't stop myself and hit sister Foster's bike from behind! I looked at her, found out she was perfectly fine and then just started laughing hysterically. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen (after I found out she was okay of course). This is the best part though. As soon as she gets off the car she rolls her broken bike up to the driver's window and says "Hi I'm sister Foster from the church of Jesus Christ, What's your name?"  I'm just standing there staring at her thinking "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?  This is not the time or place to share the gospel!  You just got hit by a car!"  It was so funny, I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed and couldn't stop laughing.

You know you're a true missionary when even being hit by a car doesn't stop you from giving an ITL (invitation to learn). I haven't reached that point yet, and not sure if I ever will, but props to sister Foster. She's an animal!

That's all I got for you! The Trees are absolutely beautiful right now! I have a couple of pictures, but they don't do Michigan justice. The whole state is literally catching fire.

Praying for you all and love all the updates, keep them coming!

Sister Viehweg

October 6th, 2015

Sorry I missed yesterday. We had a last minute conference with the mission president yesterday, which means we didn't get to email and since we scheduled a bunch of appointments today our email time is cut very short!

Thank you for all the birthday packages, cards, and wishes. You all are so awesome and I am going to go through mail withdrawals this next week. Everyone's letter and package arrived either the day before or exactly on my birthday so excellent planning. Dad those protein bars taste like they were sent from heaven.

Paul, our investigator is supposed to be getting baptized on the 18th, but this past week Satan has been attacking him non stop. Everyone knows that Satan likes to work his hardest right before someone is about to make a good decision. Well Paul has been thinking lately that being Mormon just isn't for him anymore. Prayer are needed his way. We Can't lose him!!!! Satan really is the worst. 

We picked up another investigator named Alajuwan this week. he is 8 and so sweet. He's brilliant for an 8 year old and loves sports so everything we teach him we relate it back to sports. Jesus Christ = the best coach ever who had all the authority to control and teach is players yadda yadda yadda, the kid loves it.

Conference was amazing. It was cool to read all your different insights on it. I would suggest sharing what you have learned with each other you all seemed to have similar experiences :) Now that you all have watched conference go apply it to your lives. I wish I had time to express all my feelings on it, but just know that I firmly believe and know that we have the most amazing leaders in our church and we are so blessed to hear from them as often as we do.

Door Knocking Bloopers 

Sister Chatman and I knocked into a young man

The young man: "The Lutheran church kinda disowned my family because my parents got a divorce."

Sister Chatman: "Oh there is lots of divorce in our church!"  She looked at me afterwards and said, "Wait... that came out wrong!  Help sister Viehweg"

Knocked into a young mom who's daughter used to be a member.

Sister Viehweg: "Oh we can find her on facebook. Missionaries are reaaallllly good stalkers"   

Sister Chatman:  "Not that we actually go out and stalk people!"

That's all I got. Im sorry it was so short. Next week will be better. I'm praying so hard for you all and miss you more than you know. The fall brings back so many good memories with friends and family, but this is where im supposed to be right now. Why am I getting so sentimental right now? Time to get off! love you again!

Sister Viewheg

September 28th- Pioneer days

This week has been one of my favorites and probably has a lot to do with Sister Chatman. We are continuing to find out the most random things we have in common. This morning during companion study she said "I need to find you in male form, sister Viehweg!"  Haha She's great!  Amid all the laughs and jokes we are still getting our work done, which is good. Sister Chatman goes home in December so she's a Veteran and is really really good at door knocking/finding/teaching. I have learned a lot from her. She calls me her trainer because I'm trying to whip her back into shape for her upcoming basketball practices at BYU. After emailing we are going to go to the church and shoot around. I haven't played basketball in forever so I feel like I will mostly be rebounding for her, but it beats sitting around in our tiny apartment!

This weekend Bay City had their annual River of Time celebration. It's this HUGE event that people from all around put on. Basically it's a reenactment of all the battles that have happened in the US to shape our country, starting with the Indians (who were literally wearing a girdle about their loins) and ending with WWII.  It. Was. So. COOL!!  I have never seen anything like this. The actors came and set up all their campsites and acted as the people in that time period for 3 days while the community just kind walked around and shopped. The best part was that Sister Chatman and I got to be a part of the reenactment!  We represented the Mormon Battalion and got to dress up as Pioneers and basically play pioneer for 2 days.  It was a great opportunity and really gets the church's name out because they set up a family history booth and all this stuff.  Sister Chatman and I just ran some pioneer games and made rag dolls with all the kids.

Earlier that week we got called up by the Elders to participate in a service project the community was doing for a 100 yr old lady. Her garage had been vandalized. (This was on sister Chatman's 1st day in Bay City). We arrived at the project around 10:30, but had an appointment at 11, so we got right to work.  About 5 minutes later this news camera man and interviewer tapped on our shoulders and started interviewing us about the whole project. This took about 20 min!  After the interview we had to leave to our appointment so we really didn't do much, but get this, that night we were on the news!!! They chose our interviews to show and you better believe we were wearing our name tags and BYU gear!  The Elders were SOOOOO MAD hahaha, they were at the project for about 4 hours and didn't get squat.  Perks of being a sister missionary I guess :)

Our work is going well, we still have Paul on Date for the 17th, I know Satan works fast though so Im getting nervous something's going to happen. Keep him in your prayers!  I am getting more and more attached to all the members here in Bay City and with sister Chatman we have become the favorites. Poor Elders... we really do feel bad, but we can't help when people are so obsessed with us, haha.  Just kidding, but multiple people have asked both of us to send them our BYU jersey's signed when we get home.  So ridiculous, but I'll take it.  Yesterday a member gave some of the best advice to an investigator who wanted tattoos I have ever heard, "Don't use ink to profess your love, use diamonds!"  Hahaha, it was during a "Your body is a temple" lesson. Too funny.  The people here are CRAZY!

Love you all, thanks for the early birthday wishes.  I'm sure it's going to be a great day of lots of door knocking.  Also Happy Early Birthday Danielle!  Like I always say Birthdays only come once a year, take advantage of them, and make people do stuff for you ;)

Love,

Sister Viehweg

September 21st, Zone Conference

PHOTOS:  With the bishop's family in Bay City; Bay City elders and sisters; Upper Bridge in Bay City

Whats up familyyyyyy!!!! I was so excited to log on this morning and read all the updates! You guys kill me!

Okay someone needs to go up and thank the Mangums for me because they have made me famous here in Bay City. Somehow everyone found out that I live by and went to high school with THE Tanner Mangum. Its pretty awesome because people that don't usually talk to the missionaries at church have been coming up to me and asking me all kinds of questions about Tanner Mangum and if I'm going to marry him yadda yadda yadda.  It's pretty funny. Glad to hear the homeboy is representing Eagle Idaho well though!

My interview with Elder Andersen was incredible! He is an amazing man. Crazy story though, so I walked into the interview and he starts asking me questions about where I'm from and my family, and by asking those questions we found out that we are related to each other! HOLY COW! That was a shock for the both of us! I now remember dad telling me that I was related to a member of the seventy, but totally forgot about it until now. I guess he is cousins with mom? (Dad note: Yes--Darl Andersen--Mom's cousin, son of Grandma Ray's brother) ((Shannon had been spelling his name with S-O-N at the end, so I thought it was someone else))  He's related to Grandma Ray somehow, but it was really neat to put the family connection together. After we found that out he asked a lot about our family and how everyone was doing. Then he talked to me a lot about the Holy Ghost and how it witnesses to people. I wish I could express in words the feelings that were felt in that small room. General Authorities are just oozing with the spirit. The last 5 minutes of the interview I was allowed to ask questions so of course I asked him for advice for a missionary my age. He told me to just keep pressing forward, keep reading the scriptures and to just keep doing the Lord's work. Obviously he used fancier words and said it all with much more authority, but the interview was just what I needed at that time. Throughout the entire zone conference he kept pulling me aside to talk more about our family, I think the other missionaries were a little jealous, but hey, what could I do?

This week we had Transfer calls. I will be staying here in Bay City and you are never going to guess who my new companion is.. SISTER CHATMAN!!!!  The Sister Training Leader I have been writing about!  We are so excited to start working together! I get to go pick her up right after I'm done emailing. Sister Brockbank has been a good trainer, and she was just what I needed, but I am really looking forward to having a new companion who has more in common with me.

Our investigator Paul did something funny again this week. This is the same guy who makes us all the treats that are awful, bless is heart. Sister B and I have been trying to get Paul to commit to a baptism date because he is sooo ready to be baptized. Lately he has been acting funny and secretive about it all. On Wednesday we found out that he has been trying to plan is entire baptism behind our backs!  "I just wanted to surprise you sisters!"  WHO DOES THAT????  Haha, what investigator tries to plan his own baptism behind the missionaries' backs as a surprise!?  He didn't want us to know about it until the day of. Thank Goodness we found out. The bishop called us and was like "Do you know that Paul is planning a baptism for himself?"  You can imagine our response. So Paul Jaurez will be baptized on October 17th along with our investigators, Sherry Hill, Brandy Joyner, and a couple of the Elder's investigators.  Pray for these people!!!  It should be a good day.

Sister Brockbank and I had some really awkward law of chastity lessons this week.  I usually like teaching the law of chastity, but for some reason the two we taught this week were BRUTAL. One of them was to a less active girl who is living with her boyfriend and the other was for Paul Jaurez. Paul just kept saying "Mexicans don't die, they multiply!" over and over and over again.  Which wasn't helping me keep a straight face. Tracie, the girl, was dead silent the entire lesson.  We would ask her questions about it and she wouldn't say a thing!  I wanted to crawl into my backpack.  We kept asking her to explain the law of chastity in her own words and she just couldn't do it.  I ended up just looking at her and saying, "Your boyfriend needs to move out Traice."  She didn't like that one bit.. SO pray for Tracie too!

You all are in my prayers and thoughts daily!

Sister Viehweg

Bishop's family

Bay City Missionaries

Bay City Upper Bridge

September 14th, 2015

Hello from Bay City!

Dad I hope you and Grandma and had great birthday yesterday and also hope my card came in time! Also remember forever ago when I asked if you could get my driving/vehicle record sent to me? Sister B is getting tired of having to drive all the time because I still don't have those papers in. I on the other hand don't really mind because I get to nap while she drives:) But please try and find them asap! IF you have questions write it in a letter so I can remember them.

It's been a good week! We had a lot of lessons and, as always, Tons of door knocking! My knuckles still hurt and are a bit purple, I wonder if they will ever get used to pounding on the doors. I don't even want to think about how they will feel in the winter... yikes. Speaking of winter the people here keep saying that it's not going to be as cold as previous years, but there is going to be twice the amount of snow, and from what my comp has said there was a TON of snow last year. I'm looking forward to it! We woke up to cold, crisp, air and no humidity the past couple of days which has been really nice. I think fall is coming. Michigan is about to look like it's on fire!

The Sister Training leaders came and blitzed our area this past week. Which is fancy language for the stl's came to Bay City and hung out with us for a day. Just kidding--we actually got work done. Every month the sister training leaders will come and we will switch up companions with them and they will go out and teach/find with us. Im not really sure why they do it, I think it's just to get an idea on how our area is doing and how we as missionaries are working together as comps and in the work. They then report everything back to president Jacobsen. But this all just means that I was able to spend an entire day with Sister Chatman again! She is seriously the best. Makes me laugh so hard, but the most amazing finder ever! People will throw their number at her. Goals. But dad, she said she is planning on driving through Boise and meeting you when she gets home in December, so be prepared for that.

During one of our lessons with George Brown This week we found out that he was the first national Champion boxer to come out of Bay City and that he was also ranked 6th in the nation during the 1980s. Pretty cool huh? You would never guess he had such great success in his youth because he is a total bum and homeless now. It was really neat to hear him talk about his "glory days". Sister B and I also made a couple of boyfriends while we were out door knocking. These two little boys, ages 6 and 7 were riding their scooters around a park when they saw us walking around. They came up to us and started talking to us and yes, flirting even! They were so stinkin cute! haha I was cracking up. They each would top the other's story and show off on their scooters to impress us. We asked them to guess our ages. For sister B they guessed 37 and for me they guessed 14. I don't know who they insulted more! Cute boys though, they followed us around for about an hour and a half asking us all kinds of questions.

Tomorrow is zone conference and Elder Anderson, from the 70, is coming to speak to our zone. Last week I got a call from the AP's telling me that I was one of two missionaries chosen to get a personal interview with Elder Anderson. Who knows why, but hey, I'll take it! They said the interview is going to be about 15 minutes long and they have no idea what it's going to be about. I'm a bit nervous and will have more to follow up on next week!  The work is going going going and each night sister B and I are practically falling asleep during our prayers. Our investigators are remaining pretty stagnant at this point, but we are trying our best to change that!

I love you all and, as always, praying for each and every one of you!

Sister V

spiritual thought: Go read "Latter Day Saint Keep on Trying" by Dale G. Renlund

September 6th, 2015

Hello Everyone!

 Sister B and I had a lot of funny things happen to us this week so I will try and do all the stories justice! I'm laughing now just thinking about them.

Story #1: Remember the investigator Paul I was telling you all about that made us the nasty Mexican Jell-O? Well we had another lesson with him and this time he decided to bring us some more of his "super healthy" homemade ice cream. Poor guy, I don't think he knows that heavy whipping cream is NOT good for you no matter how many fruits you put into your ice cream. Anyways he pulls out this container and it's full of some orange green looking ice cream. So far so Good. I take the lid off and put a spoonful in my mouth and try not to gag. It's Cantaloupe with a hint of dirt flavored. For those of you who don't know, I HATE cantaloupe more than anything, and what the heck--dirt?? I looked at Paul and smile and say, "Yum...it's so good, Paul--thanks" He then goes on to tell me that he also put Carrots, sweet potatoes, and kale in the ice cream. It was sooo gross! I gave sister B the look of "There is no way I am eating this," when all of a sudden God sent a bee and it landed right in the ice cream! I quickly slammed the container's lid on and shook it up killing the poor bee (which I felt bad about) but I had to make sure that there was no way he would make me eat more! Haha Other than that, the lesson went really well and he is set to be baptized Oct 14.

Story #2: People here don't exactly know how to be reverent. I don't think it's something they were ever taught. When we have people give prayers they will randomly get up and start doing things around their house while saying the prayer!  We had one of our investigators, George, get up and make himself a cup of coffee through his entire prayer! Sister B and I were trying so hard not to laugh, but I was just so shocked! The prayer was like 15 minutes long! Then on Sunday our investigator Brandy, shes 18, came to church, and when the sacrament water came around she took a sip of it and said (soo loudly) "It tastes so pure! I gotta get myself a bottle of that!" Everyone in the congregation turned around and stared at us while of course I'm just dying laughing. She's too funny, so innocent. The water really does taste so pure. Brandy also had her phone and wallet stolen while out shopping so during her closing prayer at our lesson on on Monday she said "Please bless whoever stole my phone and wallet that they will be punished, because, Lord, they need to be punished." We haven't quite taught her about not praying to punish people yet.. Haha, never thought I would have to teach someone that!

Story #3 We went grocery shopping yesterday and I really like the all natural peanut butter (Adams brand to be exact) while sister B enjoys the cheap kind that tastes so fake. Yuck. So at the store she went to grab the cheap peanut butter while I was searching through the almond butters and saw Whipped Peanut Spread on sale! I picked up the jar and told her that we had to try it! She looked at me skeptically and said, "Fine, just this once though." So we bought the peanut spread without looking at the back or the ingredients. Big mistake. I got home and opened it up to try it out. SOOO DISGUSTING! I gagged the moment I put the spoon full into my mouth. What the heck did we just buy... I turned the bottle over and saw that there was no sugar, no fat, no carbs... uhmm well if it doesn't have any of that stuff what the heck is in it? Wish I hadn't of looked, but  the first ingredient was purified water... hahaha I kept reading through the ingredients thinking WHERE ARE THE PEANUTS? About halfway through the list it said "roasted peanut flavoring." Is this a joke? That was the closest thing it had to peanuts! Then in the corner I saw small yellow writing that said "no peanuts added." Sister B was so mad telling me that this is why we don't buy all natural stuff sister V!  Haha, whatever, it was soooo funny! We couldn't stop laughing. Even the smell of the Whipped peanut spread made our eyes water because it was so bad! We are going to give it to one of our elders for his birthday on Friday. So if any of you ever see whipped peanut spread on the shelf--AVOID IT! 

I'm running out of time and feel like I still have so much to say! Bay city had a monsoon this week and because of the humidity nothing dries, so its been wet shoes constantly for the past 4 days. However, we are constantly being blessed with finding new people to teach and the work is still progressing. We started teaching a total biker dude who has tats everywhere. He even has some on the inside of his lips!

 I love you all very much and love hearing about your lives! Keep me in the loop!  Dad, thanks for all the sports updates, makes me miss sports, but I still love it!

Spiritual thought for the week:

No matter how dark your past is, or how bleak your future may look, be of good cheer. Heavenly Father's arms are open to you always and your brother Jesus Christ has already paid for your sins.

-Boyd K. Packer

Love from Bay City

Sister V

Saginaw Beach

Word of Wisdom success

Word of Wisdom success

August 31, 2015

Can't believe it's Monday again already.  The weeks are such a blur there is no difference between the days, they are all just one day combined.  Before I forget next Monday is Labor Day (happy early Labor Day) All the libraries will be closed Monday, so emailing will take place on Tuesday.

This week was another crazy one.  Our district got put on car rotation which means you get the car for 3 weeks and then have to give it up for another companionship to use it for 1 week.  It's really not that bad, but sister B was dreading it--the giving up of our car.  After being on foot since Wednesday I can kind of understand why she was dreading it.  Our area covers 4 cities, Bay City, Pinnconning, Freeland, and Essexville.  It's one of the biggest areas in the zone and I have never walked so much in my life.  We have been averaging about 15 miles per day and still have the rest of today up till Wednesday night on foot.  Yikes.  Being on foot all the time give you a lot of opportunities to talk with everyone you see though!  I'm still so uncomfortable and awkward walking up to people, but you don't really have a choice on a mission.  You have to constantly be out of your comfort zone.  I don't think I will ever get comfortable walking up to strangers and starting a complete random conversation with them.  I still remember my first time personal contacting with Breck Steele my first day in Michigan. She would basically run after people complimenting their shirt, shoes, hair, anything to get them to stop.  Funniest thing I have ever seen.  Breck is crazy.

   Yesterday  we had another really good turnout at church.  5 investigators and 5 less actives!  I still can't believe how much our work is progressing right now.  Our numbers are blowing the charts away. Last week our zone leaders called us and told us that the investigators alone in Bay City were making up more than half the investigators in the entire Zone!   They asked us "How the heck are you doing this?"  My response... "I have no idea, Elders..." 

We met another couple named Gerene and Bruce.  They are Evangelical Free something or other ? Some made up religion I swear.  They  invited us back so on Thursday we went to their house and had a lesson with them.  The lesson didn't go too hot and ended up with the wife, Gerene, just preaching to us about the Bible the whole time.  She was so intense it kinda scared me.  At the end of the lesson sister Brockbank said, "Can we schedule another meeting with you?"  Gerene looked so shocked and said that she had never had any Mormon missionaries schedule a return appointment with her.  I guess She has had lots of missionaries come to her house in the past and never return. Her whole demeanor changed after that.  She seemed so surprised we wanted to come back she invited us to stay for dinner!  People are so weird, you never know what you are going to get out of them.

This week we had a couple of funny things happen to us.  One night I was so in the mood to be active that I made Sister B speedwalk the entire way home while I ran along beside her.  We got the weirdest looks from all the cars passing us.  We also had a member bring us by some really, really ugly clothing.  She thought we might like them, sweet thought, but the clothes were HIDEOUS! Shoulder pads, dusty, smelled bad, holes--yuck (pics provided).  At dinner the other night we were talking about missions and then one of the elders changed the topic over to his brother being in Iraq and having guns, and his companion looked at him and said, "They give the guys guns in Iraq?"  We all looked at him like "Are you dumb?  Of course they do!" and he said, "For real, missionaries get guns in Iraq!??!"  Hahahahha pooor Elder Wharton thought we were still talking about missionaries. No No Elder, this is the military.   Haha he felt so dumb.  I also got invited into another old woman's home.  She thought I was her granddaughter...  Nope, but this lady let us stay so it was a success! 

I'm way over time! I love you all and am praying for you all!!!

Sister Viehweg

Donated Clothes

Donated Clothes