March 21st, 2016 Hump Day

Happy Hump Day!!!  I am officially 9+ MONTHS OLD!!  Half way baby!  I can't believe half my mission life is over!  I feel like I just got out here!

This week on campus was way better! Students were actually walking around! Spring Break is over and everyone is already super busy with their work, school, and social schedules. I was super nervous about working on Campus, but after my first day I got somewhat used to it. I still get nervous, but talking to students is actually really fun!  They are all so different and so open to exploring new things.  It's great.  The only problem is, students are a little too comfortable with giving their number out so we have a lot of false alarms.  We get really excited about all the people we have to contact and then text them and get the response, "Sorry I am not interested anymore."  So that will be a huge struggle here, but in the meantime we are teaching some pretty awesome young adults.  I actually haven't even met our top investigator yet, Brea, who is on date to be baptized in April, because of trade offs!  But I hear great things about her. :)

I had my first set of Training Leader Trade-Off's this week with the sisters in Battle Creek, the "Cereal Capital of the World."  It was definitely a learning experience. While I was in Battle Creek, or should I say Battle Crack (the city is SO ghetto), with sister Pettet my main job was just to see how she was doing and help her improve on her teaching, finding, and planning skills. The area is actually not doing that great, so it was pretty stressful trying to work everything out in 24 hours.  It was still a good experience though and I am excited to go on the remaining 3 trade-offs with all the other sisters!

I am happy, I know my Savior lives, I am so exhausted.  I have never been this tired in my entire life.  Sister G-ma and I have been getting up at 5:50 to get a little more exercise in.  Being an STL has brought a little more stress into the picture, so the extra workout time helps me a TON, haha.  Plus we have a fancy gym to use in our apartment complex, so why not put it to some good use?

Enjoy the Easter week and remember what the resurrection of the Savior truly means to you individually :)

Sister Viehweg

Eating a cactus

Hump day whale

March 14th- Kalamazoo

Hello From the one and only Kalamazoo, or K-Zoo, or KalamaZion, I have heard it all,

This week has seriously been a blur so I will try my best to remember everything that happened to me!

Monday, I packed up and headed to Mount Pleasant, which is a pretty central meeting place for the top half of the mission. When we got there, there were about 100 other missionaries all waiting for what we call the "transfer vans", Large 15 passenger vans. Once they arrived they hauled all of our luggage into the trailers, we said our goodbyes to our companions, and headed on the road. So these transfer vans will travel all around the mission picking up missionaries in one area and then dropping them off in a different one. Since I was traveling the farthest I was on on the transfer van for about 8 hours... and the worst part was that I was the ONLY sister in that transfer van for 8 hours!  It was such a long day.  I mean I love the Elders, but that experience definitely made me grateful for my Sisters.  After finally arriving in K-Zoo I met my new companion, Sister Jorgensen, from Parma Idaho. I call her Sister G-ma because she just turned 25 haha!  I can tell I am going to learn a lot from her and we are getting along just fine and dandy.  Sister J and I had a dinner appointment so we went straight to that and then afterwards FHE, because I am in the YSA Branch.  I met so many people and was so tired all I could think about was crawling into bed, but as soon as we got home we had to make a million phone calls.  Sister J just looked at me and said, "Get used to this sister..."

Western Michigan University has been on Spring Break all week so campus has been totally dead.  My first day out on Campus we walked around for about 5 hours and saw maybe 5 people, and NONE of them were students.  Since we are the sisters in the YSA branch we are only allowed to teach students, who are a certain age, which is kind of a bummer.  Sister J and I are officially in a walking area too, so we walk and walk and walk and walk.  My feet were dead the first day, but I am starting to get used to it.  Sister J wears a fitbit and we average about 12-13 miles a day and burn around 1600 calories...  I don't know if that's good or not, but it's really neat seeing the actual numbers!  Being back on a college campus is the weirdest thing.  I don't know how to explain it.  The branch is super awesome and I keep asking everyone how old they are expecting them to say 30-40, but they all respond with 21, 20, 25.  Throws me off big time.

When you don't have a car you constantly run into interesting people, one of which was a man who took my ITL card from my hand and started smelling it!???   Such a creeper!  It's all good though, because after that ITL card Sister J noticed I had written the wrong phone number on all my ITL cards.  Talk about blessings :)  Another boy we ran into said he wanted a lesson right then and there.  So we sat down on Campus and started teaching him about prophets, but this kid was not getting it.  He kept thinking profit, not prophet, and kept bringing money back into the picture.  I'm just over here like, "NO!  Buddy... You're not getting it!!"  Halfway through our lesson he admitted to being stoned out of his mind.  Explains a lot. #dontdodrugs  We also stopped and talked to a homeless man that looked like Santa!  Seemed like a pretty harmless situation, no.  Big mistake, I started laughing at him because he was talking about who knows what and he instantly got super mad at us and started yelling. We threw an ITL card at him and booked it off that street.  This place really is a zoo.

On the plus side we were able to find some really neat people to begin teaching!  Lisa and Cammy, we door knocked into and they are really awesome. Both have a sincere desire to learn, so more will be coming about them. Hopefully all of our other investigators will be coming back into town today so that I can actually meet them!

This Saturday I was able to attend Lamb of God.  Lamb of God is this huge production that Kalamazoo puts on all about Jesus Christ's life from the Bible.  It was written by Rob Gardner, and they invite any and all religions to take a part in it.  This year they had over 50 different religions participate in the Choir and the orchestra.  The spirit felt in that room is only comparable to the temple, but it's a different kind of spirit.  One of unity.  Dad, you should really look up the sound track and listen to it.  I think you would really enjoy it.  And the best part was that I was able to see Sister Breck Steele there!  She totally surprised me.  I walked into the auditorium and there she was running at me yelling my first name :) hahaha!!!   I love that girl so much and I am so sad she is almost done with her mission, but seeing her was just the cherry on top for the entire evening.  I don't know how she convinced President, but you know the Steele's, they just work their magic.

Thats all I got! Love you all from the Zoooooo!

Sister Viehweg

ps. Sister Training Leaders get to have Facebook, but there are rules.  I can add all of you and see what you are doing with your lives, but you CANNOT message me and I CANNOT message you. It is only to be used for missionary purposes, so don't make it harder than it already will be :)  I mean that in the most loving way possible

pps. I was finally able to meet up with the one and only Chet Walker!!!  Gotta love having large families!

ppps. My new mailing address is 232 Lake Ridge Drive, Kalamazoo, MI 49006

Shannon with Sister Breck Steel

Shannon with Chet Walker

March 7th, 2016- Good Bye Bay City

Helloooooo!
President Jacobson called us this weekend and I have been called to serve on the Western Michigan University Campus in Kalamazoo as a Sister Training Leader....  I am BEYOND nervous about this calling and have no idea what to expect. I am currently emailing in the Bay City Library all packed up and will head to the other side of the state right after I am done. What. The. Heck!?  My new companion's name is Sister Jorganson. She is a little older, I think 26 to be exact, and from Parma, Idaho (I think) So we should get along just great!  It is going to be a struggle adjusting from a family ward to an Young Single Adult Branch and going from working with adults to people my own age...  Wish me luck because I am headed back to college!
This week has been extremely emotional for everyone!  Sister Sheppard is taking over Bay City and is getting placed back into a trio, which she is scared about, and she is nervous to have me leave.  I feel her pain though, when my trainer left I felt like I was being abandoned, but I know she will do great things.  Our missionary work took quite of a slump this weekend because everyone in the ward wanted last minute dinner appointments, lunch appointments, and breakfast appointments.  I have NEVER eaten so much food!  Thank goodness my next apartment has a gym in it!  Also, all the goodbyes and pictures and tears are killing me.  People aren't supposed to cry when a missionary leaves!  Bay City really has been a home away from home for me. Nine months is a long time to spend in one area, and I will never forget the people that impacted my life here.
I don't have much to say this week, but next week I'm sure I will have plenty of awkward stories to share as I try my best to preach the gospel to college kids!
I LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Viehweg

With Sister Shepard

Eating ice cream with the Elliots

Add caption

February 29th, 2016

Heyyyoooo Family!!!

This week was all over the place. Time just keeps flying by!  I. Don't. Get. It.  The end of this transfer is coming too soon and I just want to know where I am headed next!  The suspense is killing me!  We have been spending a lot of time with members, because I am going to miss ALL OF THEM.  The people really are what make your mission so wonderful.

I'll start with Monday though!  Last P-Day we let the Elders be in charge of planning a group P-Day activity... big mistake.  They had us all meet in Sagnasty (Saginaw) on the East side, which is one of the highest crime rated cities in the US, to go "exploring."  Sister Sheppard and I were a little reluctant because, HELLO, we didn't want to get shot!  But we met everyone there and ended up finding this old abandoned race horse track that was really cool.  The whole time we were exploring it I kept thinking we were going to stumble upon dead bodies or sleeping hobos, but we didn't, no worries.  The elders did however play a not so funny joke and me and locked me in a pitch black room for about 5 minutes all by myself.  Stupid elders.  But it was good fun.  I will attach some photos of the old wreckage.  (She didn't......)

All day Tuesday while out door knocking, people at the doors kept warning us about the storm that was about to hit the next day, and sure enough Wednesday afternoon it began to snow.  At first it was light, but by 4:00 it was coming down pretty hard and that's when we got a call from our District leaders telling us that President Jacobson would like all of us to "park our cars," because it was a complete white out and the roads were too bad. I understood this order as, "Go back to your apartment, park your car, and get to work--on foot!!"  So sister Sheppard and I headed back and by this time there was a decent amount of snow on the ground.  We put on a ridiculous amount of layers and headed out walking to go door knocking.  The snow was coming down so hard we couldn't even see 10 ft in front of us!  IT WAS HORRIBLE!  We trudged in snow that was up to our knees for about 2 and a half hours before I finally called it quits and we took refuge in Pita's house.  When Pita saw is her mouth just dropped.  Sister Sheppard and I hadn't realized that our make up was completely smeared all down our faces!  No wonder no one wanted to talk to us...  At Pita's we taught her kids about faith and likened it to a seed, of course:) and then taught Pita all about the Great Apostasy.  I don't think I will ever get over how excited and eager her kids are to learn about God.  Anything they can get their hands on.  They all LOVE praying too.  It's so cute. 

That night we got a call from our district leader asking us what we did during the storm.  We told him we door knocked and he was completely shocked!  Apparently we were the only ones who did not stay inside during the storm.  The rest of the elders stayed in and cleaned or studied.  Bunch of sissies if you ask me :)

On Friday we went to this member's house who fed us legitimate weeds.... They were surprisingly really good.  She is what you would call a complete granola person.  After dinner she let us help her feed and brush her horses.  Elder Hartley and I were in heaven while the two city kids just sat back with their noses up.  Hahaha, too funny!  I don't think Sister Sheppard or Elder Nielson have ever had to get their hands dirty.  But, everyone is raised differently, I'm just so proud I was raised an Idahoan.

Sunday we had a lot of less actives and investigators make it to church.  It's really neat to see the fellowship that takes place throughout the 3 hours.  I know that when I leave everyone I have worked with is left in good hands.  Jessica is coming along and I think has about had it with her boyfriend. She keeps telling us she is going to kick him to the curb, so pray for a breakup because that is the only thing stopping her from baptism.

That's all I got for u's (total Michigan thing) love u's lots and have a great week!

Sister Viehweg

February 22, 2016

Family, I LOVE YOU! I love reading all the letters!  Keep them coming!  All your lives are changing so much and it's so exciting hearing about everything!

Rachel, CONGRATS on the BABY!!!  He is Darling!  Seriously so cute.  I am already bragging about the new member of our growing family, which continues to grow more and more while I'm gone!  What the heck!?  But it's okay, they will all still be cute when I get home. :)

What exciting news happened this week...

Our Baptism for Katie was a Huge success! Katie was baptized Saturday the 20th and confirmed Sunday the 21st. As soon as she came out of the water she turned to all of us and yelled "YEAH!" and started clapping her hands, it was the cutest thing in the world.  However, we all thought that her boyfriend (who was baptizing her) was going to drown her!  He held her under the water for 6 SECONDS!  Our bishop, who was a witness, started freaking out and was like, "You need to bring her out of the water now!" It was so funny. Katie came up to me before the baptism and told me that she had told Ron to hold her under for 6 seconds. I told her 6 was too many and to instead have him count to 2.  I guess she didn't relay the message, but everything worked out and Katie is still alive :).  Katie was literally the perfect investigator. And I just know she is going to do great things within the church.  Every time I look at her all I can see is the next Relief Society President.  This next week she is getting interviewed for her Temple recommend and then the week after will hopefully make it to the Detroit temple!

Meeting with gators has been hard this week. Everyone is getting sick, including everyone we are teaching. So we are in the process of trying to heal everyone from their sicknesses.  Lots and lots and LOTS of prayers!  We stopped by to see this lady named Barbara who just had knee surgery and she literally asked sister Sheppard and I to give her a blessing.  IT was the weirdest thing!  We told her she needed to call the Elders for that, but she insisted, so she grabbed our hands and placed them on her knee and had us say a prayer.  It was so weird.... never want to do that again.

This week we also had President interviews and those went well. President Jacobsen and I get along really well and he keeps making the joke that if I stay in Bay City any longer the govt. is going to force him to start paying taxes on me because I will become a permanent resident.  So it's probably safe to say that in two weeks I will most likely be leaving Bay City.  Lots of hard goodbyes will be coming my way, but I know that I will be called to wherever I am next needed.

Love you all and have a great week!

Sister Viehweg

February 16th, 2016

Hey hey Fam bam, it has been quite the week! 

Tuesday morning Sister Shepps and I woke up to a blizzard!  Hello again winter. When we left the apartment there was a couple of feet of snow and it was still coming down hard. And what do you do when you get a blizzard? You go out door knocking!  I still can't help but laugh at poor sister Shepps who just doesn't know a thing about the cold. I have to get her all dressed and bundled up every time we leave the apartment. Reminds me of when all my older siblings and you dad had to help me get all my ski gear on.  Hahaha, you all were so patient!  That afternoon we had a lunch appointment with a member. He works graveyard shift so on his way up to bed he asked us if we would be willing to shovel his driveway. Sister Sheppard, who has never even picked up a snow shovel in her life, quickly responded and said we would love to. When Brother Samyn left the room I looked at her and said "are you crazy!??  Do you know how long their driveway is?!?!"  She responded with "how hard could it be?" I just laughed to myself as we walked outside and began to shovel in our skirts and tights and down coats.  5 minutes into shoveling sister Sheppard looked at me and said, "when are we done?" I laughed and pointed at the end of the driveway.  This was no ordinary driveway. The Samyns have a HUGE driveway. I wish I would have asked how long it was, but to give you an estimate it took sister Sheppard and I almost 3 hours to shovel the driveway. And halfway through sister Sheppard had to lie down and take a break!  IT TOOK FOREVERRRRR.  When we finished we walked inside and our bodies felt like jello.  Just bending over to wash my hands was already hurting my back!  Throughout the rest of the day we were both beat. Everything we did caused our backs to hurt, even driving!  Haha, it was too funny!  At one point in the day Sister Sheppard leaned her car seat back and said, " I think I need a couple of days to recuperate."  I about died laughing at her!  She was absolutely pooped.  And it didn't' just last that day.  She has been exhausted ever since Tuesday and is still sore!

Tuesday was also what they call "Fat Tuesday" here in Michigan. It's the day before Ash Wednesday, so I guess everyone wants to stuff their faces and get "fat" on Tuesday.  Anyway, every Fat Tuesday all the stores are filled Paczci, pronounced Poonchkey, which are these huge donuts that are supposedly 800+ calories each. Everyone and their mom wanted to get the sisters a paczci to give us "the experience" and I HATE DONUTS!!!   BLLLAAAHHH, it was so gross.  We started telling everyone we were going to save them for later and when we got home that night ended up throwing them all away.  Sorry Bay City, I'm not much of a donut eater

This week at Pita's we finished all the painting in her kitchen so we joined the Elders in sanding and mudding her living room. This work is actually all pretty fun. Super messy, but really fun. When we left the house our skin and hair was completely coated in white from all the dust. Elder Hartley is the only one that has experience in building so he directs all of us and shows us what to do and we all follow. The house is coming along, but we still have a long ways to go.

Our investigator Katie, is still planning on getting baptized this Saturday, but extra prayers are needed her way because our stake president did not give her permission to attend our ward (because she lives out of the boundaries). So we are planning Katie's Baptism in a different building with a different ward and she is really nervous about it. I don't blame her, she isn't going to know anyone, but Katie has a super strong testimony of this gospel and we all have faith that it will work out.

I am the worst missionary ever....This week we ran out of toilet paper so Sister Shepps and I started stealing TP from everyone's houses we were at. Don't worry, we have since called everyone and told them that we took a roll or two. What can I say, we were desperate!

Other than that the weather has been FREEZING.  Literally. The past two days were well into the negatives plus windchill and we have been on foot all week. The weirdest feeling is when you can feel your tears freeze on your cheeks or when you can break some of your eyelashes off, but the work is worth it and God definitely blesses us with new people to teach when we are out walking in the bitter cold.

Have a great week and know that all is good in the hood of Bay City :)

PS: Thanks for all the valentines gifts! LOVE THEM ALL!

Posing with TP supply

Valentine Festivities

Winter Attire

February 8th, 2016

Today Is February 8th and I am currently wearing a short sleeve shirt and sandals in Bay City Michigan. What is this life?  The weather is beautiful, but I don't think it is going to last long.  One of the Elders here just told me that we are supposed to be hit with a lot of snow next week and lucky for us it's our turn to give up the car!  Gotta love walking around in blizzards.

Monday, we headed to Frankenmuth... again, I'm getting a little Frankenmuthed out, but all the new missionaries that come into this area HAVE to go see it, so we went again and it was fun. The rest of the week was pretty much the same.  Our investigator Katie, is scheduled to be baptized next week on Saturday and we are really excited for that.  Katie is Golden.  Literally was pre- taught.  She never has had a problem with any of the teachings or principles of the gospel and is so excited to go the temple which we have scheduled to go 5 days after her baptism.

Our other investigator, Pita, is doing so well too.  On Thursday, the Elders and a couple of men in our ward, and sister Shepps and I, went over to Lupita's house and started mudding, sanding, and painting the walls in her kitchen and living room.  I should really start taking pictures so that you all can see the progress her house is undertaking.  Pita is so grateful too.  She keeps telling me, "Never in my life have I had anyone be so nice to me, let alone grown men."  Breaks my heart, but makes this work so worth it.  Pita is so willing to change her life right now and officially gave us permission to start teaching her oldest son Javier. We went over to see her family last night and her cute twin daughters (age 6) came running towards us yelling, "Mom taught us that the first commandment is to only pray to God!"  When I first met Pita she wasn't even sure there was a God, and now I can see her kids learning and growing.  Pita also told me that every night the girls refuse to go to bed until they have said prayers and read a verse out of the "Mormon Book."   Last night Aliyah, one of the twins, said the closing prayer and said,

"Dear Jesus, tonight I am happy we have sisters, I am also happy I have my sister Lupita,even though she is mean to me, I hope she doesn't die soon, even though she takes my clothes without asking. I love God.  I love the sisters, amen."

It was So cute! This is the reason why I am serving a mission!

 

I love my calling and there is no other place I would rather be. I am so grateful that I get to meet people and help them realize the good in life and that happiness awaits them just around the corner. The Church is SO TRUE.

Have an amazing week and know that I love each and every single one of you!

Sister Viehweg

February 1st, 2016

Hello hello

Not too much happened this week. Same old same old, sometimes I feel like my emails get really boring!

We are really working this lady named Lupita Cruz right now, and we have taken on the responsibility to help her finish her house!  Sister Chatman and I started teaching Pita a long time ago, and since then she has gone through a lot with her now ex-husband and 4 children.  Her ex left her and the kids in an unfinished house.  They have been living out of one room for about 5 years!  Holy cow.  The Elders in our area came up with the idea to create a huge service project for our ward to help her finish the house. This week Sister Sheppard and I have been spending a lot of time doing a bunch of deep cleaning so that the men can come in and drywall her walls, finish her floors, ect, ect, ect.  I AM SO EXCITED for this project!  Ever since we started cleaning Pita has grown so much. People learn about God and Jesus Christ in different ways and I guess the key to Pita learning about them was through service.  We truly are in the service of God when we are serving others and that is what missions are all about.

Alajuwan is now in cub scouts, but his mom is not shaping up.  Both times we stopped by their apt this week she was high off her rocker leaving Alajuwan to fend for himself.  PLEASE pray for him!  The ward is doing a good job of getting him to church and cub scouts, but ultimately his mother is going to have the biggest influence on him.  A speaker in church yesterday said, "We can fail in all things, but you Cannot fail as a parent or a spouse."  I know Kathy can change her life around, we just need to pray for it.

LOVE YOUUU!!!

Sister Viehweg

This huge Elder was something of a hit with Shannon

January 25th, 2016

Transfer Calls are in and it looks like I will be doing another 6 weeks here in Bay City. It's crazy, the longest a missionary has ever stayed in Bay City is 7 months and I will leave Bay City at 9 months! I have seen so many generations of missionary districts come and go, it's weird. I don't think I will ever leave! However, I am more than happy to be staying. A lot of really neat things are happening this transfer. I think Sister Sheppard is relieved I'm staying too, she did not feel ready to take over an area yet. Poor thing, still can't even find the library. I don't know if you can believe this, but her sense of direction is worse than mine... I know, crazy.

If I had to describe this week using one word I would say "slippery". We wake up every morning and it is snowing and then two days later it rains and then starts snowing again. Bay City is alright at clearing the main roads, but sidewalks are a different story. I cannot tell you the amount of times I have slipped and fallen right on my backside. SOOO MANNNY TIMMMES. Always on main roads too, so all the cars start honking and I just know the people are laughing at me. I think the most I have fallen in a single day is 5 times, and that was last Wednesday. At least I'm not alone in falling though.  Sister Sheppard has no idea how to deal with ice, but does anybody?  On Friday we were walking out of someone's driveway and she was a little ahead of me, slipped and fell and in the process took my legs out from under me causing me to fall on top of her. We just kind of lay there for a minute laughing and processing what happened. Not munch else you can do.

To answer your questions of where Alajuwan was dad, no one really knows. Kathy just lets him roam the streets and go to whoever's house he wants.  Sister Sheppard and I see him running around town all the time. I now understand why you grounded me all the time for not telling you where I was. It's a scary feeling and I'm not even his parent!  The ward is stepping up though and taking care of him, he loves scouts and is currently making a pine wood derby car.

New investigators:

Katie, I don't know if I have mentioned Katie before, but she is one of my favorites!  We met her through someone in the ward and she is what you would call a "Golden Gator" (investigator) Katie grew up going to all different kinds of churches, but recently started dating a Mormon on our ward :)  He introduced her to us and we have been teaching her ever since. SHE IS PERFECTION!  We put her on baptism date a couple of weeks ago for February 20th and she is right on track. The other week she sat down and watched all of October Conference!  We had a lesson on temples yesterday after church and planned a date for her to go do baptisms on the 25th of February. Also Paul Jaurez, our recent convert, is planning on going with us! So many exciting things happening in February I can hardly wait!

I think that about sums it up, much love to you all!

Sister Viehweg

January 18th, 2016

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.. and I love hearing from all of you each week. Thank you Thank you Thank you. The little email updates mean so much to me!

This week was one for the books! I don't even know where to begin, so I guess I will just start with the temple. Friday morning the Campbells came and picked up sister Sheppard and I at 6:30am to get to the 10:00am session in Detroit. I can't believe how badly I took advantage of having a temple so close to me for 19 years of my life. We are so Blessed in the West. Anyways, about half way through our drive a portion of the freeway we were traveling on was shut down. So we had to take a major detour which put us back an entire hour. The Campbells haven't been to the temple in 7 years and they were already nervous enough to go to the session, and now we were late!  We got to the tiny temple as quickly as we could, but the Detroit Temple is always on a very tight schedule because it is so small and people have to make reservations, so the session didn't wait for us. However, they had room for us to go do sealings, something none of us had ever done before.  So we all piled into the sealing room and it was SO NEAT!  Missionaries aren't allowed to act proxy for marriage, but we could be proxies for children.  The Campbells loved it as well. Sister Campbell was saying afterwards that that was just what she needed because she couldn't remember a single thing about being sealed on her wedding day. God always knows what we are needing.
  

After the temple we headed back, and when we arrived home I was feeling pretty sick. Turns out I had a pretty high fever with random cold chills. The Elders were in the area and Sister Sheppard called them and told them to come give me a blessing (totally against my will).  I think she was a little nervous because she is still new and doesn't know what to do when companions get sick, but nonetheless, the blessing was nice and I had my first real good night's rest in a really long time that night.

Saturday was all prep for Alajuwan's Baptism!  The font in the Bay City church is old and takes forever to fill so the majority of our day was Sister Shepps and I at the church filling the font and setting up the chapel and RS room for the event. An hour before the Baptism is supposed to start we received a call from Kathy, who proceeds to tell us that Alajuwan has been missing for the past 5 hours and she has no clue where he is.  So for the next 40 minutes Sister Sheppard and I start running around like mad women calling anyone and everyone we know to go out and look for Alajuwan. It is our week for car rotation so we were stuck at the church.  We had a good chunk of the ward out searching for him on the streets, but no one was having any luck. You can imagine my stress level as my bishop, 1st counselor, zone leaders and district missionaries all start to show up. WHERE THE HECK IS ALAJUWAN!!???  I was praying so hard that by some miracle he would show up.  By now it's 6:15 (baptism was supposed to be at 6:00) and I finally get a call from Kathy saying that Alajuwan just showed up, but she doesn't have a car... of course she didn't have a car!  So I asked Paul (our recent convert) to go pick them up.  Good ol Paul, always coming in Clutch!!   Kathy and Alajuwan finally get to the church, we take pictures, get him dressed, and start the program.  After he finally showed up, the baptism went pretty smoothly and Sunday he was able to receive the Holy Ghost. I'm glad it all worked out, but I for sure lost some hair and a couple of years of my life due to the stress that took place :)

The temperatures are always in the negatives now, because of the windchill coming in from Saginaw Bay. Bitter cold is the only way I can describe it. I'm grateful that I have experience in cold weather. Every time I think that my feet are getting frostbite I think back to skiing and how cold I would get up on Bogus Basin, but also how long we would stay out skiing. Dad you raised me right. THANK YOU!!

I am loving where I am at, I love the gospel, again I love being a missionary, I am praying daily for all of you.  Transfer calls are this week, so if you are sending anything (no one ever sends anything hint hint) hold off for a week until we find out what's happening.

Much LOVE

Sister Viehweg

Aljuwan baptism

With Sister Sherpard

At the Detroit temple