Sister Shannon Viehweg's Mission: 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