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