July 20th, Bay City

It's been another good week in Bay City. To start off the week we had this HUGE storm come through and knock all these trees down, which is kinda scary here because there are soooo many trees. The storm started in the middle of the night and woke me up around 2am, it was so loud I didn't fall asleep for the rest of the night. I'll post a picture of how big the branches were that fell out of the trees. Because of that storm it was so incredibly humid all week! I think I sweat 6 lbs off! We woke up one morning to work out at 6:30amand it was 88 degrees outside. It seriously felt like I had walked into a steam room. On Wednesday the Relief Society president had both the elders and the sisters over for dinner for their traditional food challenge. The challenge is to eat as many cinnamon rolls and bowls of chili as you can. The record is 4 bowls of chili and 7 cinnamon rolls (the rolls are as big as my hand all spread out) An elder by the name of Kinikini set that record and couldn't move the rest of the night. I didn't really feel up to the challenge so I just ate 3 cinnamon rolls, no bowls of chili. So healthy, but we had fasted that entire day and it was 7pm so I didn't really feel bad about it. We door knocked what they call Hell's Half Mile this week. Which was really sketchy. Hell's Half Mile is completely full of bars, but behind all the bars are houses so we were surrounded by a lot of out of control drunks who could hardly speak they were so intoxicated. At one of the houses a 10 year old answered and I asked him if his parents were home and he immediately said "We're not interested." So I said, "Do you know the message we have to share?" and he was like "What is it" and I said " It's all about our Savior Jesus Christ" and with that he said "We're not interested" and slammed the door right in my face. And I mean SLAMMED. It was the worst slammed door I have gotten yet and it was from a 10 YEAR OLD! Its so sad to me to see little kids acting like that when they hear a message about Jesus Christ. We had another Lady call the cops on us because she thought we were breaking and entering into her apartment, when really all we did was open the screen door and knock on her door. She kept claiming that she was handicapped and that we (two young sister missionaries) were trying to take advantage of her. The cops stayed behind and talked to us afterwards and apologized for the whole scene. 

This week really was amazing, Sister Brockbank and I have been praying for new investigators since I arrived and our prayers were definitely answered. We were able to pick up 5 new investigators in one week! That is completely unheard of in Bay City. 3 of the 5 committed to a baptism date during the first lesson. Sister Brockbank has been out 13 months and said that she has never met anyone so prepared as our investigators. The Lord really does answer prayers and sometimes I have to remind myself to be humble and ask specifically for help in the areas I am lacking in.

I love you all and pray for you all daily.

Love,

Sister Viehweg

After the storm

Door knocking on the competition

1st week in Michigan

Okay, I have been completely jipped of my P-Days!  Our first p day was that Thursday I sent my last email, notice I went to the MTC on a Wednesday so I should have gotten one that next day but I didn't. Then I left the MTC on a Tuesday missing my next p day. We were at the airport at 2:30 am and I didn't really have money to call anyone. We arrived in MI and I found out that I had to wait till the following Monday before I could write anyone!  So im sorry I haven't really gotten much out!  It's been crazy and today I am sooooo grateful for a break. Three weeks in the mission field and I've only had 1 day to do laundry.... you can imagine my anger.. haha

Anyways Hello family and friends!  Thank you so much for all the emails!  It seriously made my day and I cried for the first time since leaving when I saw all of them, especially the pictures of sweet little Claire. She is precious Lisa, Can't wait for yours, Danielle!

Let me backtrack a bit... uhhh so last you all heard I was still in the MTC. So the rest of that week was weird. The church had just called a bunch of new mission presidents to be trained at the MTC so every general authority was at the MTC and were walking all around the Campus. It was pretty cool. I got to meet a couple of them and shake their hands.  That Saturday the MTC president called all the sister missionaries in for a meeting and in that meeting they told us that there were bats flying around our rooms in the 1st and 4th floors of our brand new building that we all just moved into. You can imagine the freak out of all the sisters. haha.  So they had us all move out into these weird rooms that seemed like they were going to fall apart at any second. I was on the top bunk and prayed every night that my bed wouldn't collapse in the night on my dear companion sister Dillman, although maybe that would have fixed my singing problem.  JUST KIDDING!   Our companionship got better throughout the 12 days at the MTC.

So Tuesday morning sister Sodja and I woke up at 2am, we were supposed to be on a bus at 2:30 and had both somehow slept right through our 3 alarms we set the previous night.  The panic that broke out was hilarious. Sister Sodja is the slowest person I have ever met and was just bawling her eyes out while we were scrambling around trying to pack everything up and get ready. The day before our branch president had told us that we were to look our best for our mission president. Ya, that didn't happen!  But while sister Sodja was crying I was just laughing at her. I thought it was the funniest thing.  We ran down the stairs and sprinted to the bus and made it just in time. Throughout my MTC stay I never met anyone else going to MI, but when we got on the bus there were like 16 other elders!  No sisters, and again the odds were in my favor!!  haha  We got to the airport around 3:15 and our flight wasn't until 5:45.  I was weirdly so awake and hyper at the MTC and sister Sodja was not and I could tell she wanted to kill me. Sister Sodja has Krone's disease and can't eat much, she is deathly allergic to apples. I forgot about this and while in the airport to try and cheer her up I pulled an apple out of my backpack and offered it to her.  She looked at me and said "are you trying to kill me?" oops...  I Felt bad about that and left her alone and just kinda hung out with all the elders and joked around with them.  Our first flight was to Minneapolis. There is nothing there.  Then we boarded this tiny plane to Michigan. I sat by some interesting ladies who were traveling home. They told me all about MI. Made me pretty excited.

When we landed I had completely forgotten about Breck Steele. (Great friend all through childhood now serving in the same mission as Shannon)  I was walking towards what I guessed was my mission president and she just popped right out in front of me!  She had been hiding behind some guy!  She scared me to death!  We both just hugged each other and cried and laughed.  It was such a good reunion. We were inseparable the next two days.  President Jacobsen thought we were nothing but trouble and scolded me every single time I said "Breck."  haha  Why is it so hard for me to remember SISTER!??

Next thing I new they had herded us all together and were making me do Personal Contacting. Personal Contacting is basically chasing after people and complimenting their clothes in order to get them to stop walking or running away from you. haha!   I just thought this was hilarious. Breck and I were chasing down bikers, joggers, longboarders, and full on yelling at them to stop so we could share a gospel message with them lol.  Then we went to the mission home were I killed all the elders in ping pong. They couldn't beat me and it was making them so mad.  President Jacobsen started to warm up to me a bit after that.  He's a champion ping pong player himself.  I met my trainer and then that was that.

Im currently located in Bay City, MI and it is a weird place. 

Some things I've learned about Michigan

1. It's green

2. It's flat

3. The roads are terrible

4. The humidity is horrible

5. I have allergies here??  What the heck are allergies?

6. Every single person you meet has a different religion. We went door knocking on one street and I kid you not every single door we knocked was a different religion. Makes things hard.

7. There is one ward in Bay City. 350 members, 115 active members

8. Everyone here is named Angel, both men and women. and if the men are named Angel the wife is named America

It's so weird being in a place were no one knows who you are.  Im in a sketchy part of MI. So far I have already had a gun pulled on me, been chased by a dog, and hit on by total druggies. Everyone here smokes drinks and does drugs.  There was this one house we went up to that freaked me out so badly.  The door was just wide open, so we knocked and this guy came out and started talking to us. He wanted us to come inside so badly, but I knew it wasn't a good idea. It smelt so badly of every drug in the book.  We finally got him to let us get off his porch, but he ended up walking down the street with us for a couple of minutes until I just flat out asked him to leave us alone.  I felt so dirty afterwards, all I wanted to do was wash my hands.  I have never felt like such a small town girl in my life. Everyone makes fun of me for being from Idaho.  The work is so hard, but it is good. I get discouraged when people slam the doors in my face, but we've found some investigators and even have a baptism date for one!

Love you all so much and again thanks for the emails!!  Thank you Brittany and Kristin for your package and thank you aunts for all the candy!!!  I wish I could write to you all individually and respond to your separate emails but I just don't have enough time! thanks for keeping me updated with your lives siblings, your emails/letters make me smile every single time.

apartment address

5141 kasemeyer road

Bay City, MI

Mission office

4910 South Hagadorn Road

East Lansing, MI 48823

Last Day in the MTC

Trailer Park Tracting

First Days at the MTC

Hellooooo family and friends!  I feel like I have so much to say and so little time to say it all. Dad I got your letter, it came in 5 letters though!  All the elders and sisters were so jealous of me haha.

I guess I'll start with my first couple of days here at the MTC. After dad dropped me off I was taken through all these hallways and doorways and stairways and  I had no idea where I was.  Luckily I know a lot of people here at the MTC and every corner I turned I was greeted by an elder, sometimes a sister, that I had met at BYU, with of course, a handshake. Seemed like a little reunion for me and all my friends. I think my guide was getting a little annoyed for all the times we stopped though. After about the 20th missionary I said hi to she finally said, "jeez sister, you know more people than I do and I've been here for 6 weeks!" Oops.... didn't really know what to say to that comment.

Anyways I was then taken to this classroom with all these elders and sisters staring at me because I was the last to arrive. One of the sisters ran up to me and totally butchered my name as she threw her arms around my neck and about strangled me. My first thought was 'ohhh no, this must be my companion, and shes a hugger."  (Dad comment--Shanny has NEVER been to fond of hugging and cuddling...)  Sure enough it was, her name is sister Dillman and she's from Spanish Fork Utah.  Sister Dillman and I were put into a trio with sister Sodja.  Let me describe to you my first experience with the both of them.  We all stood up to sing the spirit of God, I was standing in the middle of my two companions and as soon as they started singing I immediately threw my hands up to my ears.  Both, not one, BOTH of my companions are music majors and were singing literally as loudly as they could. And it didn't help that the poor sister in front of me, sister Jarmin, was tone deaf, which made my two companions want to sing even louder.  I was trying so hard not to laugh I think I sang about three words.  My ears were ringing for about 10 min after the song was through.  Unfortunately I am the odd one out in my companionship.  Neither of my companions like being active or working out. In fact none of the sisters in my room like being active or working out. The first time our gym hour rolled around they all said they wanted to skip gym time and go take a nap. I. Was. So. Mad.  To say the least. I took out the missionary manual and read straight from the book "you must work out to keep your body healthy and strong yadda yadda yadda" or something like that.  They all just stared at me and agreed.  Thank GOODNESS. As I work out and run around the track they sit and stretch on the mats watching me. I don't understand how they can sit all day through class (16 hours) and then come to gym time and just want to sit.  Blows my mind.  Sometimes during gym iIll play some competitive four square or sand volleyball.  I found out that while Bryson was here he would sit out during Gym time and study. His district is always coming up to me and telling me how much they loved him and how dedicated he was to studying.  Just from the little information I have gathered I have come to the conclusion that Bryson and I are going to be two completely different missionaries and have very different experiences at the MTC.

The first couple of days here were hard, and I mean hard.  I'll be honest-- my second day I had so many doubtful feelings and wanted to go home, but my companions helped me out a lot, so bless them and their loud singing voices.  The day we arrived there were three times the amount of elders than sisters.   As my dad would say "the odds are definitely in my favor" just kidding! ;)  Our district has way more elders than sisters though. I love the elders, they keep me going throughout the day. All of them just graduated high school about 2-3 weeks ago and you can definitely tell.  They are all so funny and have continuously told me that I am their favorite sister missionary haha.  Just the other day I was scolded by sister Dillman for saying Freak when I dropped my scriptures.  After that the elders would say freak every time the opportunity to say so arose. I couldn't stop laughing, sister Dillman was furious, which I feel a little bad about, but what can you do?  My companions have proclaimed me the "social one" since I say hi to someone every corner we turn.

The teachers here are great and a couple of them are pretty attractive too. Its not fair, why would they give us such good looking teachers!?!?  Maybe it's to help us pay attention better?  Like I said earlier we have 16 hour days every day and I never thought I would hear myself say that 9:30 was late... haha  I get so exhausted every single day and waking up at 6:30 is a struggle, but im doing it.  I have been pushed in sports and school work, but I have never been so pushed spiritually in all my life.  It's incredible how much I am retaining and learning each day here.  We've already taught a couple of investigators.  Most are pretty nice and receptive to our messages, but we have this one girl named Chevin who is just a pill.  She's Pentecostal and so stubborn.  Refuses to pray in front of us and never reads anything we ask her to read.  The other dayIi was so stubborn and blunt with her in the lesson that she just stared at me for about 2 mintues straight and finally said, "Fine. I'll read one page, but thats it. You will never get me to pray in front of you."   I took that as a win, I hope she reads.  Shes been coming to the MTC for about 6 months now and no one has been able to make any progress with her.

Everyone here has been getting letters from dearelder.com so if you want to send me a quick letter during the week use that website. The letters are printed out and delivered the next day, just use my regular email shannon.viehweg@myldsmail.net 

mailing address 

sister shannon Viehweg

JUL01 MI-LAN

2007 N 900 E Unit 84

Provo UT 84602

Can't believe I've already been here a week and leave on the 1st, its all going by so fast!  Tell the Grieves and the Walkers and the Dunns that I see their daughters everywehere I go and they look great and happy!  I love you all and keep all of you in my prayers!

Sister Viehweg