September 6th, 2016

OH my gosh... Where do I even begin with this letter...

So two weeks ago I packed up everything I owned (gave more than half of it away) and said goodbye to K-Zoo and hello to East Lansing and Michigan State Uuniversity. That was quite the emotional goodbye. Everyone tells you it's the people you will love the most, but no one talks about how emotional it always is to leave the people you become so close with.  My first couple of days spent in East Lansing I stayed with the other set of STL's that I will be partnering with (if that's what you can call it). We three worked campus all day every day until the new missionaries came in Wednesday night.  I forgot how big MSU was.  That place is literally gigantic.  50,000+ students.  So many foreigners too.  My first day on campus was two days before school officially started, but all the students from out of the country come early to get situated. I felt like I was serving in Hong Kong for a bit.  Wednesday night rolled around and it was super fun going to the airport, I haven't been inside one since I came out, and welcoming all the new missionaries.  We thought it best that I didn't tell any of them that I was also a trainer, so I was able to get to know them all pretty well.  There's only one way to explain them all, "wide eyed and bushy tailed."  They have no idea what they are getting themselves into :)

   Thursday morning I had to head to the Stake center early with Sister Jacobsen (my temporary companion) because I was asked by President Jacobsen to train all the trainers on training.  Did all that make sense?  I trained for about 40 minutes until it was time to go meet the greenies!  President J lined us all up and gave the big count down.  My new comps are Sister Hymas, from Pleasant Grove Utah, and Sister Dehl, from Burlington Wyoming.  Both of them are super different and had super different upbringings, but I am excited to be with both.  They were shocked when they found out we were in charge of an area on campus and very scared. As soon as we got all their luggage together I took them straight to campus and gave them the real experience.  Hahaha, the poor things, they had no idea what to do or what was going on.  In fact I have been talking so much that my voice is practically gone this morning.

    I knew double training (two greenies) was going to be tough, along with being an STL, but I had no idea what to expect and I definitely didn't expect what it's like.  All my time, focus, and attention is completely on other people right now.  If I am not talking to the greenies, I am on the phone with the assistants, if not the assistants, the ZL's, if not the ZL's other missionaries in the Lansing Zone. The Lansing Zone had to open a bunch of new areas because of all the new missionaries that came in, so we are now the biggest zone in the mission. Yikes! Life is sooo busy!

    MSU had it's first home game on Friday, and that was a real treat. People were going crazy. The frat houses were OUT OF CONTROL.  I thought movies exaggerated those things, but they definitely do not.  Sooo many people were all over campus and we for sure took advantage of it all.  Sister Dehl and Sister Hymas both come from pretty sheltered backgrounds and I don't think they are used to this type of crazy campus lifestyle.  Sister Hymas came from Happy Valley, Utah and Sister Dehl grew up in a town with a population of 250.  Haha!!  PRAY FOR ALL OF US PLEASE. 

One last thing, please pray for our area, we need investigators.

I love you all and have no time to think about you, but I STILL pray for you every night :)

Sister Viehweg

August 26th, 2016

August 26, 2016

Family!!!  It seems like it has been FOREVER since I have emailed any of you!  So much has happened in the past two-ish weeks and I HOPE I can remember everything!

Last week was much, much better! God always blesses you after the trial of your faith, haha! Sometimes that can be so frustrating, but it definitely is rewarding. Within the last couple of weeks Sister Robertson and I were able to put two of our top investigators on baptismal date for October 8th!  Lydia and Josh!!  They are both making HUGE progress and I am so excited for both of them. Especially Lydia though.. She will always have a special place in my heart. Her and Taylor ( the less active boyfriend) have been making big steps for the better. They both have a desire to come to church. He really is wanting to baptize her and we are doing our best to prepare both of them for the 8th. I can't believe we are already planning for October, where is the year going??

Tyler, our third top investigator is also making a lot of progress. He is consistently praying every single day, watching conference talks "from the old guy with no emotions" (he is talking about President Monson :)) and reading from the Book of Mormon. Every single meeting he still tries to talk me into going to Saginaw with him to Skydive.  Soooo tempting, but I am strong and say maybe in a couple of months....

Since it's nearing the end of the transfer we have been trying to squeeze all the fun we can in! Two Mondays ago we went ice skating, and this past Monday we planned a Zone P-Day and rented out a rollerskating place and had the entire zone on roller skates for a couple of hours!  It was SO MUCH FUN!

This week was slower, WMU is on a two week break, so once again, campus is a ghost town and we aimlessly walk around and talk to whoever we can find walking through campus. It's been pretty rainy here and it's way too hot and humid to wear rain coats or hold umbrellas, so we basically get soaked every single day. My clothes, hair, mascara are constantly dripping everywhere.

Transfer calls were last night and I received a pretty shocking phone call from President Jacobsen. This is how the conversation went:

      President,  "We will start with Sister Viehweg. Sister Viehweg, we need you to come to Lansing, we need you to open up a new area at MSU (Michigan State University), we need you to train not one new sister missionary, but two new sister missionaries, we also need you to remain an STL, but serve as a SOLO STL and be over half of the sisters in the Lansing Zone.  Did you get all of that Sister Viehweg?  Do you understand what you need to do?"  Me...."Ya Sure Prez...."

The mission has never done something like this before, so wish me luck! I pack up and head to Lansing on Monday. I am really sad to leave the area, and to leave all the awesome investigators, but excited to get a new start on a new campus with two NEW missionaries!!!

I love you all, I pray for you daily, Thank you for the support!  If you are going to send me anything in the next couple of days send it to 4910 S. Hagadorn Rd. East Lansing MI 48823

Peace out K-zoo, it's been fun!

Sister Viehweg

August 15th, 2016

August 15 3016

Wassssuppppp Family!?

Not going to lie, this was a really rough week for my companion and I. Everything seemed to be going against us, so I don't have too many things to tell you. However, it was a learning week, and I feel more confident and excited for the work this week! Funny how things like that just make you more and more willing, dedicated, diligent, need I go on? :)

The highlight of the week was probably Half Mission P-Day. All the missionaries on the West side of the mission gathered to together in Grand Rapids at a huge park and played games all day long. The weather was hot and humid, but President Jacobson set up water games, so it wasn't too uncomfortable. My favorite game we played was probably the water kickball. We had kiddie pools as the bases and slip and slides as the base paths. A bunch of us sisters just ended up sitting in the kiddie pools. Thats the closest I have been to swimming in 14 months. Felt soooooo nice. It really is neat to see so many missionaries gathered together for one purpose. I got to know a lot of the newer missionaries, which there seem to be more and more of. Looking at the missionaries in the mission now I see less and less familiar faces. 

Another highlight of the week was meeting with Lydia. She is making so much progress! We met with her on Wednesday and she was so excited to see us. During our lesson she told us that she has been thinking a lot about baptism and is wanting to be baptized when she is ready. Our goal this week is to put her on a solid date. Pray for us! It's going to be such a big step for her and Taylor. If you asked me though, I would just prefer it if she dropped Taylor...He is having the hardest time getting back into the swing of the gospel and she is always telling us how he is holding her back. She doesn't feel like she can fully progress until he is progressing. Any ideas on how to help a less active 24 yr old young men come back to church?.... Me neither, but if you come up with any PLEASE let me know!

I had overwhelming feelings of frustration this week, because I felt like my faith was lacking. The ZL's knew that something was up so they sat Sister Robertson and I down and started talking about things. For some reason our investigators keep dropping us, and nobody seems to be interested in meeting with us. It's the end of the summer semester here on campus. Students are either busy moving out or moving in and getting jobs, taking exams, etc. The Elder I was talking to told me that I should try focusing on gratitude more. When you focus on the small and simple things that the Lord has blessed you with, it helps you realize the blessings of having faith in him. I took his advice and right after we talked with them we went into a private area and said a companionship prayer completely full of gratitude. The comforting feeling I felt afterwards was indescribable. Even in the lowest of lows, all that the Savior has done for each and every single one of us is incredible. On Sunday, one of the students in the Branch spoke on Faith, and his main point was to have faith in Christ, not in the outcomes. I reflected back on how my faith was the last couple of days and realized that that was exactly what I had been doing. This is what I learned.  My faith is not founded in the people I find. My faith is founded in Christ. As long as I know that he is my Savior, that he set the perfect example for me, and that he carried out the infinite atonement, my faith will never falter. It doesn't matter what people say to me, or what students ignore me or how they make me feel stupid. Jesus is the Christ and I fully believe in him, and that is where my faith is based. The outcomes come AFTER and only AFTER you have faith in Him. 

Thank you all for the prayers and support. Enjoy watching the Olympics, it is KILLING ME not being able to know what is happening in Rio. The adventures seem fun, save some for when I get home. LOVE YOU, and go America!!!

Sister Viehweg

August 8th, 2016 Ombre'

August 8, 2016

 

It's been a good crazy week in K-Zoo, but the weeks are always crazy and fast in Kalamazoo. Life keeps picking up the pace and I don't know how to keep up with it!

This week we had MLC, which was really cool! We decided to do a mission wide fast to hit our goal of 280 baptisms by Dec. 31 2016. We are cutting it pretty close, but starting tomorrow there will be a set of missionaries fasting in every single zone every single day (except for p-day) until the end of the year! Cool right??? I am super pumped!  After the meeting we all went to the mission home for a BBQ. Pres. Jacobsen has the NICEST ping pong table I have ever seen so of course the APs had to challenge me to some games. Don't worry dad, I put them in their place. :)

Later in the week we had another big break through with Lydia!  Her less active boyfriend, Taylor, came to our lesson the on the Word of Wisdom. Lydia has been such a good influence on Taylor.  She has been making them read and pray together and when we taught them the WOW he totally testified and they both committed to live it!  Then they both made it to church yesterday! #blessed!!!

Saturday we had another baptism in our area, by the Zone Leaders.  Her name was Aly and it's actually a pretty funny story how we all met. I first contacted Aly a couple of transfers ago on campus. She was SO rude to me and my companion at the time. She told us how she grew up mormon and how she would NEVER EVER be going back to that religion.  A couple weeks later the ZL's contacted her and for some reason she decided to meet with them. During that lesson she stopped the ZL's and asked them, "Did you know that you have some FLDS sister missionaries on this campus too?" The zone leaders just started dying laughing because they knew she was talking about us! Aly thought I was FLDS!  I must have been wearing something really homely that day... ooops.   Sometimes I get desperate okay? Anyways, Aly grew up with a mom who was FLDS and it was not a very good experience for her.  However she is now baptized and loving life has a latter day Saint. 

What else happened this week... I went on trade offs with a greenie and got bored of how I look, so I dyed my hair! yayyy for ombres! I will attach a picture!

Have a great week and know that someone in the K-ZOO loves you!

Sister Viehweg

August 1st, 2016 Dehydration

August 1, 2016

 

Hey Hey FAMILY!!! I am super short on time this week, but  I will try and  catch you up on everything!

So last Monday I talked to you about my heat exhaustion, the stupid sickness carried with me throughout the entire week! I am finally starting to feel back to my normal strength. I feel like I have been drowning myself in water too. But it definitely took it's toll and this week wasn't the best, but sister Robertson and I tried to make the most of it. Midterms and Summer term finals have begun at WMU, so again, campus was a total ghost town. Add Pokemon-Go to that and you literally talk to zero people. I tried to stop one student and he said, "I am too busy catching Pokemon to talk about Jesus right now."  If I didn't have a name tag on I would have decked the kid....  I guess that just shows how much I love Christ now, so it gave me some weird type of motivation to interrupt everyone playing Pokemon Go whether they got mad or not.  Can't say that we found too many students who were interested, but we did our best.

Wednesday we had a zone training and it went really well! I was super nervous to train in front of all the missionaries at first, but once I got up and allowed the spirit to take over it became easy. The missionaries seemed to have enjoyed it and our numbers all looked good last week. WAY TO GO K-ZOO ZONE! 

Right after the training I left my area to go on a trade off with Sister Merriman. She has only been out 2 months, pretty green, but we had a good time together.  I always pray super hard for trade off miracles to  happen so that the other missionaries can get re-motivated, and the Lord never leaves me hanging.  I prayed to be invited into a house, by a young mom.  Sure enough, while door knocking, we got invited in by a young mom who had just had her third baby. She is originally from Italy and had a super thick accent, but loved what we taught her, and the Sisters have since put her on date for baptism!  Thank you Heavenly Father!

My favorite investigator we are working with right now is Lydia. She is 20 years old and is dating a less active member named Taylor.  We have been teaching Lydia a lot lately and really the only thing holding her back is her less active boyfriend!  So dumb.  However, she has been doing her part and reading the Book of Mormon in front of him, trying to get him back into the swing of things. Yesterday she came to church without him and loved the 2 hours she stayed.  She also talked with the ZL's to plan a way they can get in touch with Taylor and start inviting him to Monday morning basketball.  Lydia and I have so much in common, I feel like I have been sent to this area for her.  Pray for her and Taylor!  Once he's on board they are both on board. :)

Our apartment is so ghetto...  We finally get over the scare of the bed bugs and guess what shows up next? MICE!!!! These mice are crazy!  They aren't scared or timid, they LITERALLY run around in the open!!!!  It's so scary!!  We have set traps everywhere and still haven't caught anything.. help!!

Love you all!

Sister Viehweg

July 25th, 2016

July 25, 2016

Hello Everyone! I love being updated about everyone's life, thank you thank you thank you for all the emails! You all really motivate me and keep me going out here. I feel so blessed to have all the support coming from back west.

This week was a doozy, it was long and hot! Transfer calls were last week and I was called to stay in the same area, but to train a new STL, YIKES. So far so good though! I picked Sister Robertson up Monday evening, and life has been peachy. She is from Holiday Utah and has been out about 10 months. My youngest companion since sister Sheppard!  She looks at me like I am ancient, but I still feel like I have been out about 4 months...

We taught a lot of lessons and saw a lot of miracles with people wanting to meet right on the spot. Those lessons were so inspired because we were literally dying of heat! The temps were high and the humidity was ridiculous. It's been storming pretty badly at night here causing the days to be extremely humid. The forest we usually walk through to get to campus is completely flooded right now. Water up past our ankles. I never thought I would get this type of weather here in Michigan. Everyone just told me it was going to be cold. No one ever said, extremely high temps and monsoons. Yesterday was so bad that when we finally got back to our apartment I started feeling really sick and ended up throwing up because of heat exhaustion/dehydration. So fun. This morning I felt like a train hit me, but luckily the worst has passed.

We have been teaching this homeless guy named Kevin lately, and the first time we taught him it was pretty rough. This is how it went, " Kevin, How have you seen God reveal himself to you in the past?" Kevin: "Through drugs..mainly shrooms."  The lessons started out pretty rough, but lately he has been showing up to lessons drug free and ready to learn. He always does all his homework (reading) and comes with questions. It's amazing what the Gospel can do to people. It can change ANYONE. He is planning is second bike trip to the west coast, so don't be surprised if Kevin stops by our house dad :)

This coming Wednesday we are training the Zone on member missionary work, wish us luck! Our zone needs this as I am sure everyone does. Every member a missionary. That's my commitment to you all this week! Go share the Gospel, because it's just too great to keep to ourselves.

LOVE YOU

Sister Viehweg

Photos: 

1.we felt a lot closer than we actually were....

2. bugs this big only in Michigan...

3.I have never been so enticed by a fountain before.

July 17th- 13 Months

July 17, 2016

 

Transfer number 10 here we go!  Today I turned 13 months. Can you believe that????

Sister Smith and I had a really good week.  Week 6 of the transfer always flies by, but we tried to make the most of it.....and honestly I have been staring at the screen for about 5 minutes and can't think of much to tell you all.. haha

Bed Bud scare is officially over. Sister Smith and I slept on the couch every single night until Friday evening. The only thing that could make us change from the couch back to our beds was watching a giant, black spider crawl under the couch. Haha!  We are so ridiculous. We even flipped the couch completely over to try and find it and kill it, but couldn't find a single trace of the sucker, so being the paranoid sisters we are, we set up our beds that night and have been sleeping in them ever since. NO BITES either. It's a miracle.

Thursday evening was pretty neat. Sister Smith and I were invited to attend the Kalamazoo Stake PEC meeting with all the bishops and branch presidents. They asked us to conduct a short training on getting members more involved in the missionary work.  I was so nervous.  There were a lot of old men in fancy suits, but the meeting was enjoyable and really spiritual. I am so grateful for the priesthood leadership we have in our church.

Friday we took Bryan to the family history center and found him some names to take on our temple trip we had planned the following day. I really wish I had more knowledge about how to do family history...it's embarrassing.

Saturday we woke up bright and early and headed to the church were we met about 20 other branch members and Bryan to carpool down the the Detroit Temple. It took us a little over 2 hours to get there and the whole experience was amazing. It has been a long time since I have done baptisms for the dead, and seeing Bryan's face said it all. We were also able to take one of our less active members, Xoabin Zhao (We call him bin (bean) ) :).  It's been a really long time since I was fully submerged under water, almost felt like I was swimming...jokes, but I totally miss swimming..

After the temple we went to Texas Roadhouse for Elder Dunn's birthday, Sister Smith got so full she had to unbutton on her skirt.  Then she forgot it was unbuttoned in the car and leaned forward and the button and zipper had fallen wayyyy down. She flashed us all. It was pretty funny.

One more miracle this week, today at church Bryan was able to pass the sacrament!

LOVE YOU

Sister Viehweg

July 11th, Bedbug Scare

July 11, 2016 

Wellllll

This week was pretty good!  All your 4th of July plans seemed almost as fun as mine :)  Jokes, I am jealous of all the camping trips, someone PLEASE take me camping or backpacking when I get home!

After the 4th, our week passed by in a blur. But here is a story to make your hair stand up a bit. 

So, a little background.  Before I came to Michigan I thought the phrase, "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" was a cute, endearing phrase to say to cute little kids as you shut off the lights. I had no idea what bed bugs even were, or that they even existed. When I came to Michigan the first thing I heard about and was warned about was the amount of bed bugs that they had here. Still not really knowing what they were I arrived in my first area only to find out that my first set of ZL's had just been infested with bed bugs and would not be leaving their apartment to greet us. Sounded pretty serious to me. Missionaries not leaving their apartment? Scary!!  So since then I have kinda been a little scared to see or even touch anyone who has bed bugs, and let me tell you, EVERYONE has them here! I am amazed I never saw one in Bay City.  Now, that being said, last week Sister Smith and I went on Trade off's and a sister from Three Rivers came and slept in my bed. She woke up the next morning with bites on her arms and legs. I came home and washed all my sheets, because I thought that was weird (I also had washed my sheets the morning before she came), next morning, I woke up with tiny red bites on my hands and stomach. Washed my sheets again. Then we went on trade offs this week and the sister that stayed in my bed woke up with bites on her legs! This is when I really started to freak out. Sister Smith and I called our mission mom and told her what was going on, full on panicking and she told us it sounded like.... bed bugs.... I freaked.  We started tearing apart our room and mattresses, box springs, sheets, EVERYTHING!  Fun fact about bed bugs, they lay 3-5 eggs every single night. THEY MULTIPLY LIKE CRAZY!  After tearing apart our room and throwing away all my bedding (a bit rash but necessary), we found one black bug and one weird looking earwig that we thought could potentially be a bed bug and put it in a baggy to take to Zone Conference to show one of our AP's who had a horrible experience with bed bugs at the start of his mission. Sister Jacobsen told us he would know for sure. A couple of days later at ZC, Elder Smith took the baggy and looked at the bugs and said, "This just looks like a bunch of janky beetles sisters... you're fine". All that work for nothing, but you better believe I am still paranoid and scared to death. Sister Smith and I still haven't put our room back together and we sleep on the couch every single night together. I am not taking ANY more chances.

Sooooo I guess I can tell you some spiritual stuff now. :)  Bryan blessed the sacrament yesterday at church and he did such a great job! He also joined us at the family history center on Wednesday and is finding family names to take to the temple this Saturday!  Sister Smith and I are so pumped to go with him!  We also have two less actives that we reactivated that will be joining us in the trip as well!

Our Zone Conference was amazing on Friday. I learned so much from the AP's and from President Jacobsen.  The leaders in the church are seriously men called of God.  This week I learned how grateful I am for the priesthood and the blessings it brings into my life.

I hope everyone has a great week!!! LOVE YOU

Sister Viehweg

July 5th, 2016 Baptism

July 5, 2016

 

Life just keeps getting better and better!

Last Monday, we held a Zone P-Day and that was a blast, It was hot so we did water balloons, beach volleyball, bbq, ping pong, etc.  Yes dad, the Elders still get upset because they can't beat me at ping pong. I think the Zone really enjoyed themselves and everyone seemed hyped for the upcoming week. The rest of the week passed by in a blur. The next day I went on Trade offs with the sisters in this tiny little town called Three Rivers.  An Amish community lives really close by so there were Amish people EVERYWHERE. I couldn't believe it. Didn't know that many of them still existed, but they were all over Three Rivers. I wish I would have grabbed a picture, but I felt a little bad. You don't see them taking pictures of us, so why would we take pictures of them, ya feel?  Anyways, the trade off was crazy. It was a trio, so sister Smith took one of the sisters back to campus and I stuck with Sisters Osmond and Alloy in Three Rivers. Man, who knew so much drama could go down in just a short amount of time. Sister Osmond's, companion went home early a couple of weeks ago, causing her to leave her area and join the sisters in Three Rivers. Boy, was she bitter, but everything was worked out.  I was exhausted, and excited to go home to Kalamazoo when the time came. But I love those girls all the same. Wish I knew how to help them more. Trio's are just rough, especially with girls, because two are always talking..

Moving on to better news! BRYAN WAS BAPTIZED!!!!! On Saturday Sister Smith and I made the hour long trek to the stake center building to begin the preparations in the font, and programs, chairs, etc., etc.  The baptism was well attended by the Branch and other missionaries around the area, and Bryan was glowing and so excited! After he was baptized the got up and bore his testimony. I was so proud of him. The next day, at church, he received the priesthood and, again, bore his testimony to the entire Branch. He talked a lot about how The Book of Mormon is true, and his purpose, and love for God. Everyone loves him and I am excited for him and his new journey.

Happy Fourth of July!  President Jacobsen called all of us and said that we was giving us an all day P-Day, 6:30am to 10:30pm.  We started the day off going out to breakfast for an Elder's Birthday, did some studies, and then about half of our zone headed over to South Haven.  South Haven is a cute little town right on Lake Michigan. If I were to live anywhere in Michigan it would for sure be South Haven. They had a little parade that we watched and then we went shopping in all the little stores downtown, tried the state of Michigan's BEST rated ice cream (It was pretty dang good), and then went to a park right on the beach and played corn hole, beach volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and had a bbq.  Then we watched the sunset on the beach. The entire day was a blast, I have zero regrets. We even got to see some fireworks on our drive home.

Time is flying by, I can't believe Sister Smith is going home in 2 weeks. So sad, I am going to miss this companion a lot as well, but I am sure my next one will be just as good!

I am praying for all of you and I can definitely feel the prayers coming from you!!

Sister Viehweg

June 20th, 2016

Whats up family?? I actually am so short on time this week this one is going to be short, SORRY!

This week was long and hot and humid, but I have zero complaints! I first off would like to wish all the fathers a belated Happy Father's Day! you are appreciated all around the world and I can honestly tell you that every prayer I heard that day included something about how awesome dads are, way to go.

We had a set back with Bryan's baptismal date, so it will hot be happening this weekend, but keep him in your prayers, he is struggling with some internal problems that he came clean about last week. We are hoping to get him back on track and baptized within the next couple of weeks! He is still keeping all the commitments, comning to church, reading, praying, loving the Gospel. Now it's all up to the Savior.

Ethan, one of my favorite gators, dropped us last Thursday. It was SO SAD! He even had the audacity to butter us up with making us homemade crem buuuu something? He even brought a blow torch into the church and burned the brown sugar right in front of us. All this work to tell us that he refuses to pray about the Book of Mormon and doesn't see point in meeting with us anymore. Can you tell I am still a little bitter?

We had trade offs with the St. Joseph Sisters, that went well. Sister Christiansen and I were on campus together and someone got free chocolate chip cookies, free hot chocolate, free brownies, and lots of potential investigators. I would call that a successful day!

We stole the Zone Leaders camera and also found out ( by going through their pictures) that THEY were the ones who put the stupid dead racoon in front of our door.... mark my words, we will be getting them back.. somehow. Prank Ideas are more than welcome, if not encouraged.

Friday I hit 1 year, wow, that went by fast. I don't know what I am more shocked about, the fact that I have been serving a mission for 12 months, or the fact that I have been able to get up consistently before 6:30am 12 months in a row :)

Okay that's all I have time for! I am so sorry! I love you all and promise to write more next week!

Sister Viehweg

Thanks for all the emails this week,they were hilarious and fun and made me excited to see all your faces in 6 months!

June 13th, 2016

June 13, 2016

FAMILY!!! I miss you so much! I don't think I tell you that enough, but really, I MISS ALL OF YOU.

So I haven't emailed in a while, but it's not my fault! We had a change in rules. From now on every last week of the transfer we will have P-Day on Monday and then that Saturday and skip P-Day the next Monday when everyone transfers. So you won't be hearing from me the first week of every transfer from now on. Okay, moving on.

Transfer calls were last week and I stayed in Kalamazoo at WMU with Sister Smith. This is her last transfer, so I will be saying goodbye to another, but I am really grateful to be with Sister Smith. She is exactly what I need at this point in my mission and we are constantly having fun and laughing. So I am happy. The rest of our zone was completely switched around though, so we have a lot of new sisters and elders to get to know. After I get done emailing we are having a huge gathering of all the areas and getting to know them all better. Should be fun.

Campus was pretty dead this week. Sister Smith and I have been having more experiences with animals than people. A couple of days in a row random deer were walking right through campus. It was the weirdest thing! Then there was a mini crisis about a snapping turtle that was seen on campus. Apparently it was a huge deal. Sister Smith and I walked right into the scene. Watching the campus patrol try and pick this stupid turtle up was hilarious. Snapping turtles are pretty big and have really long tails, but super sharp claws and teeth, so you have to be careful. It took about 5 of them to dispose of the turtle. On Sunday Sister Smith and I walked out of our apartment and almost stepped right on top of a DEAD RACOON! It was huge and disgusting and literally right in front of our door! We screamed so badly and slammed the door shut. After the first initial shock we opened the door again and saw that it was dead and thats when the smell it us. IT was soooo gross! our first thought was that the Elders played another prank on us, but later found out that they had nothing to do with it. The poor thing probably died of heat stroke of something right in front of our door! We named her Sonya and she is now resting in piece in our dumpster. Uggh, I hate animals.

On Wednesday someone decided to pull another prank on us and post our number on Craigslist for a free jeep. Sounds funny, but it was the most annoying thing!  In one day we probably had over 100 phone calls from people asking about a free jeep, that's not including all the text messages and voicemails. We have had to keep our phone on silent for the past 5 days because it rings nonstop. People are texting us at 4:30 in the morning asking questions about this jeep that doesn't even exist. Today we are getting permission from President to get on Craigslist and see if we can flag the post or something.

Last night Sister Smith and I were STARVING and we literally had exactly no food (I will attach a picture of what was in our fridge). So we took out everything we had, flour, frozen green beans, onions (that were growing onions out of them), and pizza sauce. So.... we decided to bake a homemade pizza. we mixed the flour with water and sugar and salt ( no yeast, we didn't have any) and then put the sauce on, then the green beans, onions and baked it. It was actually pretty dang good! But I don't know if that's because I was desperate for food, or what. I am now confident If I can make a pizza out of those ingredients I can make anything!

Our investigator!

We have one who is progressing a ton. His name is Bryan, I think I told you a bit about him, we found him at the bus stop. His only desire is to return to live with the Lord. He is scheduled to be baptized on the 25th, so two weeks away! Keep him in your prayers! He is doing so awesome! Comes to church and all the Branch activities and even bought himself a brand new suit, just for his baptism. I am always so amazed at the strong faith of these young people. They leave everything they know behind and commit themselves to the Gospel.

Just like I always say I am beyond happy, and don't ever want to leave where I am at. The mission is constantly changing me into who the Lord wants me to be. I never thought that I could become the person that I am today, and I am so excited to continue this change in my life. It's weird, I am changing so much, but still the exact same person.

Thank you all for the emails, letters, and support. All of your testimonies constantly are building up mine and all those around you!

Sister Viehweg

May 31st, 2016

Heyyyyaaa Fam

This week was a hard one on me. Monday we went on an emergency transfer with the Kalamazoo-2 sisters, Sister Burk and Sheppard (who I trained). Sister Sheppard has been going through some weird medical problems lately and while I was with her she opened up a lot to me about how she was feeling. The next day I got a call from her telling me she received an answer to go home. She and hr companion came over to our apartment the next morning and we called President Jacobsen and told him what was happening. Sister Sheppard was honorably released as a missionary yesterday. My heart is a little broken. The thing is I don't know what is more upsetting to me, the fact that my mission child is gone, or the fact that I no longer have any living companions in the mission. I know God's plan is different for everyone though, and it was the right thing for her to do, but this week I am trying to get out of the slumps and back to work. The best thing for me is to lose myself again in the work and that's exactly what I have been doing, or trying to do. Keep the Sheppard family in all of your prayers this week for me!

Sister Smith and I had a really good week last week! We were able to pick up a lot of new investigators who are wanting to find truth, so that is what we have been giving them!  Most of our investigators are international students at this point, so language barriers have been the challenge of this transfer. It's definitely helped me improve my listening skills. Some of those Indian accents are SO HARD to understand!

One of my favorite gators at this point is probably Vidyut. We taught him the plan of salvation last week and in his closing prayer he said, "Thank you, God, for showing me the Chart of Life (the plan outline), I hope to one day end up in Celestial with sisters." Haha Melts my heart.

We are also working with this kid named Bryan who is from the South and responds with "Yes ma'am" to every little thing I say. He is so respectful and so humble. I LOVE people like that. We just put him on date for Jun 25th so keep him in your prayers!

Saturday I was able to return to Bay City for a baptism. I found and started teaching Donna, and when I got transferred the sisters there picked up her daughter and they were both baptized on Saturday. It was really neat returning to that ward and seeing all the old members. I love seeing the progress still continuing without me. One less active family I door knocked into was fully coming to church now and their son was scheduled for baptism! Sometimes all it takes is planting the little seed.

Memorial Day was a goody. Our Branch President, who reminds me a lot of you Dad, had us all over for a BBQ and we played games and ate and talked. It was a good time. We had 4 of our investigators make it. International students are the best. They are amazed by the littlest things. Always whipping their phones out and taking pictures and videos of everything we do. Makes me feel good about myself :)

I love you all! Make this week the BEST week!!

Sister Viehweg

May 23rd, 2016

Hey Family,

I honestly cannot tell you where this week has gone. I felt like I was gone alllll week!

Monday we went bowling as a District.. I hate bowling so I just provided entertainment while everyone else bowled :)  Then Monday evening I packed up my bags and headed to Kalamazoo 2 area to go on trade offs with Sister Burk.  She's a ranch girl from Arizona, and has only been out 3 months.  It was so weird for me to be with her and think that I was once at that point in my mission. So full of doubts and insecurity and homesickness, etc., etc.  All I could tell her is that there IS light at the end of the tunnel and one day the switch will flip for her. It does for every missionary.  We had a good time together.  That area is pretty ghetto so I felt like I was back in my stomping grounds of Bay City :)  We didn't trade back until Wednesday morning.

Then Thursday evening I packed up my bags again and headed to St. Jo, which is right on the shore line of Lake Michigan. It was BEAUTIFUL THERE!  The apartment was right on the lake, so I felt like I was in a beach house. I was with Sister Christensen, who is a cousin to one of my college roommates, Amanda Lund!  So it was really fun catching up with her and talking to her about Manda.  Sister Christensen is also a really young missionary.  She has only been out for 2 months, and again the whole trade off just made me reflect back to the start of my mission.  There is no way I have almost been doing this for a year...

I finally made it back home to WMU Friday evening and then Saturday a set of Missionaries had a baptism that we attended! For some reason when I got to this area someone leaked word that I play the piano. And since I have been here I have been called by the assistants and all these missionaries to play the piano at Zone Conferences, MLC meetings, baptisms, and on and on, AND I"M NOT EVEN ANY GOOD!  So I have really been working on my piano skills lately. I am so grateful I somewhat could play before I came out, because it's been a real life saver in a lot of different situations. I even learned how to play the Organ a couple of weeks ago.  I guess when your pianist doesn't show up, they assume every missionary knows how to play... so anyone who is thinking of serving a mission--please learn the piano.

    

Saturday evening Sister Smith and I went over to this member's house for dinner and she had the weirdest animals!  We held chinchillas, hedge hogs (which I hated), and bearded dragons.  Now you all know I am not much of an animal lover, and to be honest I didn't love these animals either, but I took pics as proof that I really did hold them!  The hedge hog stabbed me a couple of times.  Who would ever want a pet hedge hog?  The world will never know.

Have a good week!

Sister Viehweg

ps. Thank you Lisa, Brittany, and Kristin for the mail!

May 16th, 2016

Okay I really had every intention of writing last week after Mother's Day, but our Zone P-Day went wayyyy late and The ZL's and STL's had ZERO time to email when we got back and throughout the week. Sacrifice Sacrifice.... but the P-Day was a huge hit. So it was all worth it! And I guess I will start there...

Monday, we packed up the entire Zone and headed to South Haven, which is a cute little town right on the lake. There were boats and docks and lighthouses and it was BEAUTIFUL! I honestly felt like I was on the coast. At the beach we played Volleyball, ultimate Frisbee, soccer, kickball, football, you name it, we played it. Our zone has been struggling with morale and being motivated lately, so at the end of the day the ZL's and Sister Smith and I put together this spiritual thought.  We had a couple of convert missionaries share their conversion experiences and pumped everyone up about our Zone Goal this transfer.  I get so nervous talking in front of crowds, especially Elders and Sisters my own age, but God really does place the words in your mind once you have fully prepared. I think everyone enjoyed it and everyone I saw left in good spirits!

This week campus was a little more busy and we were able to find a couple of really awesome new investigators. One of them was a former, named Brandon. I found him my first week in K-Zoo and we lost contact with him once finals hit, but he is back on track and committed to be baptized in June!  Unfortunately last week he told us his lease is up, so he is getting kicked out of his apartment and moving back to Detroit for the summer. Keep Brandon in your prayers!  I am still praying that a miracle will pull through and he will find a way to stay in Kalamazoo for his baptism!  We had another break through with an investigator named Hannah. She is SUPER evangelical and always tries to teach us instead of the other way around.  Sister Smith and I both got the prompting to teach her in the church chapel and it was the BEST lesson we have had with her!  She also brought a friend with her that we were able to pick up and both of them came to all the activity nights we had this week.

A couple of weeks ago we had a random couple show up to church and leave before anyone could talk to them. We found out eventually it was a less active on the WMU basketball team and his girlfriend.  I was able to find them on Facebook and start chatting with the girl, but as you all know we lost our Facebook privileges, so Sister Smith and I were really bummed that we weren't going to be able to contact her anymore.  We had her phone number, that we had gotten randomly from the Elders, but were scared to freak her out and just start texting her.  So we decided to leave it in God's hands and just pray reallllllly hard that she would contact us to take lessons.  Sure enough, on Sunday this past week we got a text from a random number, and it was Lydia asking us if there was church today!  Her and her less active boyfriend, Taylor, both came to church and a member invited them over for dinner and a lesson this Wednesday! I will let you know how all that goes next week!

It snowed last week on campus... PRAY that Michigan will find the Sun again. I NEED IT.  Other than that it has been a normal week, I loved seeing you all on Monday. It's weird that I will hit month number 11 this week. I feel like I just left you all. I want you all to know that I love where I am though, and am the happiest I have ever been.  I have been studying repentance a lot lately, and true repentance comes when the heart begins to change and you have no desire for the way you lived before.  Because of our savior, Jesus Christ, we do not have to be what we once were, and I truly believe that.

Peace out from the K-ZOOOOOOO!!  Love you,

Sister Viehweg

May 2nd- New Companion

Hello Helloooo!!!!

I guess I should catch everyone up on Transfer calls since I didn't write last week... I don't even have a good excuse!

So as everyone knows Brecky left me and I am now with Sister Smith! She is soooooo great!  As always it takes a little bit to get used to a new companion, but Sister Smith is great. She makes me laugh so hard. She is from South Carolina, my first companion not from the West, and no, she doesn't have an accent so don't ask. I guess that's a sore subject for her. Everyone in her family has one except for her.

On Transfer Monday the ZL's asked Sister Burk and I (my temporary companion for the day) to play Transfer ball with them. Super hilarious, super funny, because neither one of us are very good, but for some reason all the Elders thought we were amazing and wanted us on their teams. I think everyone else was just terrible, so it made us look really good because we both played sports so we have some sort of coordination. It was good fun. Then Sister Smith showed up with Sister Sheppard--my old companion!  Sister Sheppard got transferred into my district so I am now her STL!

This week on campus was actually really depressing. Everyone was taking their last finals and packing for home. We said goodbye to 7 of our investigators, a couple of who were on date to be baptized at the end of the month. My heart is broken, but we made sure they were in contact with the Missionaries in their home towns and had pretty smooth hand offs. It's so hard giving away your baptisms... but I am just grateful they all went into areas where there are missionaries to pick up where we left off.

Our miracle this week!

On Wednesday we got this call from a man who wanted to meet with us. I didn't recognize the name or anything and he had pretty poor English, but we agreed to meet on campus later that night. His name is Vidyut, he is from India and studying Engineering at WMU. I guess the sisters previously had met him on campus, but he was way too busy to meet with them. Now that it's summer he has all the time in the world. So we met with him and scheduled another meeting on Friday. He seemed pretty cool, but we were a little unsure. We invited him to church, he showed up and started introducing himself to everyone and anyone he could. He didn't even want to sit by us! He wanted to sit by his "new friends" he had just met! Totally fine with us. Then as everyone started bearing their testimonies, Vidyut turned around and asked us what they were doing. So we explained what a testimony was to him. He suddenly put his hand over his chest and said, "I feel something. I feel positive energy and it's telling me to go bear my testimony."  And with that he stood up and went to the pulpit and bore the cutest testimony in the world! "My name is Vidyut, I have been very blessed. I got all B's on my engineering. I met the sisters, they are guiding me down the path of Christ. I feel positive energy here. I am excited to learn more. I am grateful for my new handsome friends I have met. Amen."  It was AMAZING!!!!  He became an instant legend! Everyone in the branch wanted to talk to him and get to know him. So I will keep you all posted on the progress of Vidyut!

WMU is such a ghost town now, we are not 100% sure what we are going to do here in the Summer, but God has placed some cool students in our path who are staying for the Summer. So hopefully they will keep us busy and hopefully we can find some more! 

I am so excited to talk with you all on Mother's Day!!!

Love you!

Sister Viehweg

April 18th, 2016 10 Months!

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Today I woke up so excited because I got to hear from all of you!  I LOVE YOU ALL MORE THAN YOU KNOW!!!

This week has been amazing! Brecky and I were blessed in so many different ways I don't even know where to begin!

To give a little background, the students here at WMU are all prepping for finals this coming week, so everyone is crazy busy and of course, not wanting to meet with missionaries.  But once again my testimony of prayer has been built up.  Each day Breck and I left the apartment we prayed that we would find people who were willing to sit down with us and people who were staying for the summer.  Guess what people?  Prayers WORK!

Tuesday we had Zone Conference, with both the Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo zones and it was amazing!  One of our AP's is from the promised land, Idaho, and kept using analogies in his training that had to do with Idaho.  One of my favorites being the Fiesta Bowl miracle between BSU and Oklahoma! :)  He focused a lot on how we need to promise people blessings while inviting them to learn.  Breck and I tried that out this week and saw huge success!  Funny story though.  When we first started doing it, it was really hard, and poor Breck got her words mixed up and said, "If you sit down with us, we promise you that you will be able to learn more about Satan..."   Hahaha Too funny!

Throughout the week we used the new training in our finding, and we were able to have so many random sit down lessons with students on campus, pick up multiple new investigators, and put a couple on date to be baptized.  We also had a lot of people make it to church for the first time yesterday.  I love how willing all these young adults are to find truth and how open minded they all are.  It really does amaze me.  I cannot imagine growing up in a household where these truths were not taught to me. Thank you Parents for teaching me while I was young.

The sun FINALLY found Michigan this week!  I wasn't sure if I was ever going to see it again!  Last week it was snowing and this week we got FRIED (see photos).  Breck and I did not prep for the sun and now have the WORST farmer tans I have ever had in my entire life.  Don't worry I will attach a picture so you all can make fun of me.

How has 10 months already gone by?  I feel like just yesterday I was in the MTC feeling so lost and confused and unsure about what I was doing.  I am so grateful that God somehow got me on a mission.  It has changed my life forever, and I now fully understand the importance of this Gospel and the work that I am able to be a part of!

D&C 4:  "For the field is white already to harvest and he/SHE that thrusteth in his/HER sickle with his/HER might, the same layeth up in store that he/SHE perisheth not, but has everlasting life."

LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Viehweg

April 11th, 2016

 am so glad everyone is enjoying the beautiful Spring weather because guess what... We got hit with ANOTHER snow storm last week that left a foot of snow. Don't worry, I am NOT bitter about it at all.  Yesterday everyone at Branch Council was talking about how we needed to get going on our Spring yard work for the church grounds next week and I raised my hand and said, "As far as I know it is still snowing outside, therefore it is winter, and I will DIE if I do yard work right now."  So pray that the weather warms up here in Michigan! 

Brecky and I had an awesome week!  It all started off with Mission Leader Conference in Lansing, where all the zone leaders and sister training leader's get together and plan out how to help our mission become better.  The meeting was super inspiring and we are all pumped to get back to work now. I t's really cool what our mission is doing with the STL's.  Everyone's mission uses them differently, but our mission president is trying to make the STL's and ZL's more balanced and equal in their work load, so we are being given new responsibilities which is really exciting.  The leadership we have in this mission right now is incredible, I have so many role models to look up to.  It's great!!

Here are a couple of miracles that happened throughout the week:

Breck and I have been working on increasing our faith, so earlier this week we said a prayer before we went out contacting that we would specifically find someone to teach that day who had an open mind and was ready to hear the restoration lesson.  Sure enough, the 6th person we talked to was a freshman named Phillip who invited us back to his dorm, where we taught him the Restoration.  The spirit was super strong and we are excited to continue to teach him this week.

Wednesday night we got a text from a random number that asked if he could get a tour of our church building and take lessons. We asked him how he got our number and he talked about how a young missionary with long brown hair (me) had randomly stopped him on campus and given him a mormon.org card a couple of weeks ago with this number on the back.  THIS NEVER HAPPENS!  We probably pass out around 30 "Invite To Learn" cards a day and my entire mission I have only had 2 people contact us through our number on the back, one in Bay City and now this guy!

Breck and I went and blitzed Battle Creek (the ghetto) on Saturday.  A blitz is where we both go into the area and trade off with the sisters working there.  I was with Sister Osmond, who is still in training, and we had had a pretty rough day of door knocking all day with zero success.  All of our appointments had fallen through, but the very last lesson of the day was with this media referral family from Burma.  Sister Osmond gave me a brief overview of how they had only dropped off a BOM and the dad could hardly speak any English, the wife none at all, but that they had wanted them to come back.  Before we went into the lesson, we said a prayer asking God to help us be able to understand the family even through the language barrier.  Sure enough, during the lesson we were able to communicate with the father who translated everything to his wife and back to us.  The lesson took a while so we only got to the Great Apostasy and told him that we would be back to explain how the authority was brought back. Sister Osmond called me last night to tell me that Harang, the dad, had called her at 6 am that morning to tell her that he had prayed and received his answer on how the authority was brought back, by a prophet!

Sunday we didn't have anyone coming to church, but randomly got texted by a freshman we had taught a week ago, named Janae, asking us if we would be at the 11 church session.  We said yes and she showed up 5 minutes later!

If I have learned anything this week it's that obedience brings blessings.  Brecky and I stay up late pillow talking, but even though we are best friends we are both firm and steadfast in keeping our purpose at heart and following all the rules.  It truly has been the most amazing experience serving with my best friend and has only grown my testimony even more! 

Thats all I got for you. Here's to another week of the best 18 months of my life :)

Sister Viehweg