Week #4

Hello Family and Friends!

Hope all is well at home!  I miss your faces... and everything else :)  It was great to talk with my family this past Sunday on Mothers Day!  They're so great!  Oh, and just for the record, I am NOT in the Bronx... I'm in Manhattan.  I guess that was confusing in one of my previous letter?   I dunno.  lol.  Anyway, one fun story before I get into the bulk of my email. 

So a few weeks ago we were volunteers for an event in Times Square.  All the missionaries on Manhattan island were there (maybe about 60 of us?).  We were suppose to be there by 5:45 am, so we got up around 3:50 that morning.  The Chinatown sisters who live in the apartment beneath us met up with us to travel together.  As we exited our apartment door, I heard little squealing.  I looked to my right to see HUGE sewer rats scurrying away from us.  AH!  We never see that in the daytime, because they are never there when people are around.  Anyway, we continued to walk to the subway when I heard a lot of movement in row of trashcans off to our left.  To my astonishment, MASSIVE rats flew out of the garbage cans and ran off into the alley ways.  Seriously, they were literally jumping from the bottom of a trash can out (like at least a 3 foot jump)!  Haha... I squealed and jumped into the street to get away from them!  So funny!  Well, myth #1 about New York sewer rats has been confirmed.  Now I just need to find out if the whole crocodile in the sewer system myth is real... ;).

Anyway, this past week we had our first zone conference!  It was fantastic!  There were 3 subjects that were hit on (loving your companion, effective planning, and progressing your investigator).  And to my surprise, these topics were the things that were weighing most on my mind.  Just the night before the conference, my companion and I discussed these very things!  So, we were eager to hear what was taught at the conference!  Goodness, the Lord knows how to inspire his leaders and missionaries!  Such an amazing tender mercy! 

On Friday we were able to spend almost all day helping an incredible family move out of their apartment.  Glade and Lucie Holman have raised 6 kids in a 2 bedroom apartment here in Manhattan!  They are INCREDIBLE!  I pretty much ADORE this family like NONE other!  They are such incredible examples of love and happiness.  I seriously want to be more like them someday!  Amazing, amazing family!  They are moving to Highland, Utah in just a few days.  (Family-- you should look them up and just say hi sometime :)  You won't regret it!)

We have seen little miracles this week!  We have been trying to get in contact with a few less active members recently, and we have felt like they were dodging us (Ok, lets be honest, they WERE dodging us).  But through divine means, we ran into them, or caught them at home just in time and they were more than willing to receive us and our message!  How amazing!  Tonight we are meeting up with one of them, Lorraine Sepulveda, and helping her paint her home.  Lilliana Rivera also let us into her home and told us the message we shared was exactly what she needed to hear!  Tender mercies :) 

We were also able to teach our investigator, Karen Slappy (baptismal date for May 25), about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity.  That was FUN actually!  And no sarcasm intended!  She struggles with smoking and drinking tea, but she knows baptism is what she should do, and that she needs to work towards it in any way she has to.  She is so strong!  So excited about this gospel!  We are excited to see how she progresses!  We are praying for her for sure!  Keep her in your prayers too please :)

I'm learning a lot.  Mostly how to get over myself and my pride (haha--yes, I admit I have a pride issue!).  I'm being refined and learning to teach by the spirit.  My companion, Sister Martin, and I were able to teach our district this Monday at District Meeting.  It was SO fun to teach those who believe as we do!  The spirit was strong and I LOVED it... just like EFY again!  But not...

Anyway, I am so grateful to be here, in New York as a missionary.  I am so blessed to be able to share my testimony of the gospel with others and to grow with them.  The Lord lives!  He loves us all SO much!  Yes, he loves YOU, he loves me, and he loves the drug dealer in the projects down the street.  He loves the people who divert our eyes each day.  He is working on them in their lives whether they realize it or not.  He is in the details of our lives... the orchestrator of everything "virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy."  He is THE one... the ONE and ONLY way back to live with God again, for eternity. How amazing.  How incredible!  This gospel is real!  It blesses our lives so much!  Don't forget that!  Help the work along and do some missionary work of your own today!  Have you been touched by his love?  "Can ye feel so now?"  (Alma 5:26)  If so, go to work!  If not, work on being able to say that you CAN feel so now, with confidence!  Why?  Because it is ESSENTIAL to your eternal happiness.  No big deal right?  I love you!  Now, go to work! 

Love Always,

Sister Weyandt

P.S.  Pictures are of the Jersey shore across the Hudson river from our mission at Battery Square Park ( a mile away from our home).  And a picture in that park of the Freedom Tower and other buildings.  Cool or what?  :)