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

August 24th, 2015

 This week just flew by, I don't know where the time or the days went. I'm having the hardest time remembering what the heck happened this week!  I even looked through my journal last night.  Maybe it felt so fast because last week was eternal haha, but I will do my best to let you all know what has been happening in Bay City!

Thank you Dad and Deb for the raincoat!  It came just in time for 2 straight days of hard rain, the coat fits perfectly and kept me dry and warm.

On Monday for district P-Day we all went Ice Skating.  Dad, I know you love to tell people that I only went to 1 semester of College, but that first semester that you don't like to count really paid off for this P-Day. I rocked the ice skating due to my Ice Hockey Class I took last fall :)  It was so much fun and everyone in my district now wants to go take Ice Hockey at BYU hahaha!  We got a new District Leader this transfer.  His name is Elder Engle and he stands at 5'4" (that's my height).  When I first saw him I couldn't believe it.  He looked so TINY!  Doesn't help that his companion is 6'2" and pretty hefty.  I looked at Sister B and asked her if that's what I look like standing next to people, She said yes.  I've never really thought I was that short, but poor Elder Engle is just tiny, probably weighs around 100 lbs too.

 The Guistiniani's that I was talking about last week made it to church yesterday!  Counting them we had 5 investigators come and 2 less active members making a new record for the Bay City ward!  The Lord is blessing us.  Last week we had 1 investigator on date for baptism, and by Sunday night we bumped that number up to 5.  So hopefully we will be able to start dunking these champs soon :) It's just crazy how busy we are throughout the weeks.  We are always rushing from one appointment to the next, and if they fall through it's back to door knocking. I keep waiting for my knuckles to form callouses, but they aren't coming.  However, they are staying bruised so I guess that's a good thing.

This week we had Trade Offs and I was paired with Breck Steele's Trainer, Sister Chatman.  Sister Chatman is my age but is heading home in about 4 months.  She got a full ride to play Basketball at BYU and is soooooo cool!  We had the best time together talking about sports and how there are ZERO competitive sister missionaries out here--haha.  Watch for her on TV--her name is Jessica Chatman and her brother is playing basketball at Provo right now.  Dad, maybe ask the Shaw's if Braiden has met him yet?

A family in the ward took us out to eat at this place called Mr. Hotdogs.  It tasted just about as good as it sounds.  The Dad talked this place up like it was the best food he had ever had so I was pretty excited to try it out.  We walked into the "restaurant" and ordered our food.  All I'm going to say is that McDonalds tastes better.  So if you ever see a Mr. Hotdogs, avoid it and go to McDonalds.

I'm praying daily for you all and hope everyone has a good week! Sorry This is short, next week will be better!  Love you All

Sister Viehweg

Michigan Rain Storm

August 17th, 2014

Today is officially my 2 month mark. So happy 2 months to me! Also its been raining like crazy here. Flash Floods Everywhere, but we still go out and door knock. Any sign of a raincoat dad?

Last night Sister B and I received a phone call from our mission president.  Sister B's Grandma passed away earlier that day. It's her first grandparent to go so she took it pretty hard. This morning she seems good, but I can tell she's holding a lot in. Keep her in your prayers, I can't imagine what it's like losing someone while out serving.

Okay this week was good!  We have this investigator Paul, who I can't remember if I've mentioned or not. He's in his 50s, really funny Mexican guy.  Anyways, he invited us over to try some of his "Mexican jello specialty."  I'm not much of a fan of jello so I was a bit nervous to try it and oh my gosh it was terrible.  He had taken all flavors of UN-sweetened jello and cut it up into cubes. Then he took sweet and condensed milk and poured that into a red plastic cup. He then had plopped the cubes of jello in the condensed milk and hardened it all. I took one look at the "specialty" and wanted to gag. Of course I had to try it though and it was just awful.  Hahaha!   Sister B was a way better sport than me, she ate the whole thing.  I took 3 bites and couldn't continue.  Poor Guy, he's sooo nice and has a really good heart, but his cooking or "specialties" could use some work.

The other day we were out personal Contacting in a park and we were just walking around when an acorn fell from a tree and landed right on top of Sister B's head. I DIED laughing!  It was the simplest thing that could have happened, but for some reason it made me laugh so hard.  What are the odds of an acorn falling out of tree right on top of your head???  She was not happy about it and was angry at me because I kept bringing it up all throughout the day.  Just yesterday we were knocking doors and I busted up laughing, once again, thinking about the acorn.  We had another elderly lady invite me inside this week, once again she realized her mistake and kicked us out instantly.  I also made the mistake of stopping a lady right in front of a funeral home to try and teach her.  Note to self, NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.  The woman just broke down sobbing saying she was just trying to get to the funeral.  I didn't know what to do so I gave her a piece of gum and said, "God loves you."  Why would I say that???  Haha  I swear sometimes the things that come out of my mouth on doorsteps or while PCing (personal contacting) are so embarrassing.

We were really blessed this week.  We are currently teaching 13 investigators, which is completely unheard of in Bay City.  The Lord is blessing us right and left.  We knocked on this guy's door, he was Italian and from New York, so he talked really funny, and as we were talking he just all of a sudden stopped and stared at us for what seemed like 10 min.  Not saying a word.  Then he said. "You two are young, are you millennials?"   We said yes and he just stared at us for an ETERNITY again. Finally he said, "I think Amy and I would like to come to church"...  Wut?  That was my response, of all the things I could say I said, "Wut?"  Haha, I was so caught off guard!  So George and Amy Giustiniani will hopefully be attending church this week.  We are having dinner over at their house tomorrow and will be teaching our first lesson with them, I'm pretty nervous about it.  They have so much potential and I don't want to mess it up!  We also had one of our former investigators call us.  He was released from jail!!!  Him and his brother both were incarcerated while we were in the middle of teaching them, so it was good news to hear that he was out.

That about sums it up. I'm praying for all of you constantly throughout the day and I miss seeing all your faces!!  My spiritual thought for the week:

Some blessings come soon, some come late, some don't come till heaven, but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.  It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come. -Elder Holland

Love Sister V (no one can pronounce my name here, so I have permanently turned into Sister V)

Contrasting Shannon's side of the wall with her companions