Week #8, God is in the Details

So last week was hard... and this week was even worse.  Haha... BUT, Miracles happened!  One day was particularly rough.  We went back to that same building we were yelled out of before for a return appt... and were "juked" (stood up).  So we decided to tract the rest of the building.  The second door yelled us out again, and even slightly pushed my companion to leave the apt.  I cried...  so maybe I'm not as heartless as I appear.  This was the event to break the camels back.  I was so discouraged.  But the Lord THREW blessings our way after we fervently prayed for help.  I was so "lowly in heart"... so humbled.  I practically sobbed my way through the prayer.  But when I say God threw blessings our way, I mean THREW! 

Immediately after we said our prayer, we walked outside to see this cute little boy balancing on the curb.  I said "Good job, Dude!"  Instantly he ran to my side and walked with me.  Haha... I asked him what his name was.  "Marvin" he replied.  I found out he was 3 years old, and his birthday is on "Brooklyn 17th"... aka April 17th ;)  Haha!  That little man lifted my spirits.  We had so many other miracles thrown in too... like a less active named Molly Ryan was home and very kind to us.  She told us to call her when we ever got discouraged.  We ran into the Elders (Fronk and Furhiman) as we tracted the bottom floor of our less actives building.  They were coming to see her as well, thinking she was still single and in their ward boundaries (haha... the singles ward Elders had no record that Molly had been married for 8 years).  But it was great to see friendly faces.  Right outside our less actives house, is Washington Square Park, where an Indian Festival was happening.  We decided to walk through to see what it was all about.  We ran into an LDS family there who is visiting from Georgia!  Miracles... downright miracles.  The list continues, but it just goes to show that God is in the details of our lives. He cares.  And when we come to him with humble hearts, he will pour out the blessings upon us. As we put our faith in him, he will bless us immensely!  I am so grateful for this incredible gospel and how it helps me every day to turn to the Lord and grow! 

The work has been slow this week, but our investigators are progressing.  Elizabeth Davey, a former investigator we had, called us up and asked if she could be taught again.  Barbara Green, one of our hard hearted investigators was softened... she listened to us as we testified of modern prophets, a concept she is completely against.  She even came to church and loved it.  Larry Jones is starting to "get it" and understand what we are teaching him and how it will personally bless his life.  He even asked how he can become like us and go door to door.  Wow!  So cool! 

The spirit has been so strong this week.  Through the trials and challenges, I have been greatly blessed!  I have grown SO much this past week, and it was because it was hard.  If that's the case, I hope my whole mission is hard.

I was able to go on exchanges on Monday-Tuesday with Sister Beer in Chinatown.  Yes, I live in Chinatown, but I do not procelyte there.  But since I was with Sister Beer in her area, we were teaching in Chinese.  Haha... well, she was teaching in Chinese.  She translated for me and asked me questions so I could participate in the lessons.  We even went out contacting for a few hours on the street.  So many people stopped and talked to us because they were amazing that we spoke Chinese.  In all actuality, I knew "Ne how" and my companion knew Chinese.  Guess it's rare for white girls to speak Chinese.  Haha!  "Ming fey ing one ban" means "Free English class"...  ya that'll come in handy some day ;)  I learned a lot from Sister Beer though on how to become a better missionary!  So excited to implement what I learned in my own area!

This morning we got to play Ultimate Frisbee with the Chinatown zone at 6 am!  To my utter surprise, I was pretty good... ya... like I said, I'm probably more surprised than you!  lol  Anyway...

It was such an incredible experience though to feel of the strong spirit during a lesson where I had NO idea what they were saying.  The Lord has a way of teaching us through the spirit.  It's amazing!  I am grateful for the struggles thrown my way, because they are leading me closer to the Savior.  I know that my Redeemer lives.  I know that this gospel is true.  It blesses my life SO much!  It's amazing... simply amazing!  Never give up.  Never give in!  The Lord is on our side, and we both know with him we will win :)  I love you all! 

Love Always,

Sister Weyandt

Pictures:

*Me and Sister Martin at my first baseball game ever... the Yankees!  :) 

*Strange how I am grateful for whoever decided to tag this building... they helped me keep perspective on this really rough day.  God has a purpose for every little thing I guess :) 

Week #7, 2 Months In..

I can't believe it has already been 2 months since I entered the mission field!  It seems like an eternity at times, and a dream at others.  So crazy!  

This week has been rough, not gonna lie.  We have had some trying moments... being yelled out of a few buildings, feeling fear, and having sad moments.  We had a woman contact us wanting the lessons.  She asked if she could get baptized and we were excited to teach her.  Then, randomly and surprisingly she told us she was not interested anymore (in a rather harsh way).  Our investigators aren't seeming to progress.  Some are being downright stubborn.  It's hard.  

But, we have had some tender mercies and successes.  It has been fun to get to know Paulette Cruz, a less active here.  She has such an incredible testimony of Christ.  She serves others ALL the time!  Truly an amazing woman!  

Yes, this week has been hard.  But the church is true.  The Lord lives and this is his work.  What else matters then?  Nothing.  I love you all!  Keep us in your prayers!  And keep the pictures coming!  

Love Always,

Sister Weyandt

Picture #1- Us with Karen Slappy, one of our investigators, who moved from the Shelter to her new place in Harlem.  She is now being taught by Elder Tancayo and Elder Kholi, and should be baptized on June 15th.

Picture #2- The beautiful view of Battery Park City from a members home.  Great view of the Hudson River and New Jersey!

Picture #3- My district on our last day as a full district!  There is Elder Golding, Sprunt, Smith, Holzer, and Sister Martin and I.  Great district if you ask me!

Week #6, Pluggin Along

I feel terrible... there is never ANY time!  So sorry!  But all is going SOOO well!  We have had absolute miracles happen this week!

One woman, Elizabeth Davey, found US and is SOOOO excited for the gospel!  She knew her stuff, even when she had never met with the missionaries before.  She asked US if she could come to church... uh ya!

Karen Slappy is moving this week and should be baptized in about 2 weeks!  SOOO excited for her to finally get baptized.  WE have kept pushing back her date (even though she is totally ready) because we want her to be baptized in her new ward where she is moving to.  

Hmm.... there are SO many things that have happened this week that are simply amazing.  Still LOVING the incredible ward!  They are fantastic.  The Lord is blessing us SO much as a companionship.  Usually we teach about 10 lessons each week, but this past week we almost doubled it by teaching 17 lessons!  It's such an incredible thing to teach the gospel!  I'm learning tons and loving the mail!  Keep it coming!  Love you bunches!

Love Always,

Sister Weyandt

Week #5

Miracles have happened this week!  I don't even know where to start!  

We were let into houses that we were not welcome in before.  We saw priesthood blessings given and seen miracles happen.  The ward members are sharing the gospel with their friends.  One of my EFY friends, Mitchell Cobb, just moved into the ward with his wife this past week! Random people showing up at church just to see what we are all about.  Baptism for Karen pushed back, but she is SO excited to get baptized.  We have seen the Lord working in our lives this week and in the lives of others around us.  We've opened our mouths to share the gospel, and seen so many tender mercies.  It is amazing out here!  Sorry there is just not enough time to tell it all, and sadly this is the most amazing week that I've wanted to gush about!  But life is good, just know that!  I love you!  Continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers! 

Love Always,

Sister Weyandt

Pictures: 1. Glade and Lucie Holman 2. Me with the Freedom Tower on a dark and stormy night ;) 3. Sister Martin and I with our investigator Karen Slappy!

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?  :)

Week #3

Hello everyone!

Goodness how time flies huh?  I have only been out here in New York for 3 weeks, but it seems like it's been forever!  5 weeks ago I left home and now I feel so comfortable as I walk the streets of Manhattan!  It's definitely a different way of life out here!  We have had some fun experiences along the way though!  

So, every time we walk out of the subway, we don't know what to expect: a street fair, bike races, rally's, etc.  You name it, we got it!  It's so alive an exciting here.  Last week my companion and I went to a fruit vendor in Chinatown on Pday.  She wanted to look around the inside of their store.  As I walked around eying all the fish, live crabs, and other food, I stopped to gaze into a large plastic garbage can.  I gasped!!!!  Inside were dozens of MASSIVE dead toads!  "THEY EAT FROGS?!"  I exclaimed to my Filipino companion!  "THEY EAT FROGS!!!!!!"  Haha... she just looked at me and said, "Of course we eat frogs!"  UGH!!!!  SHE eats frogs!  And not just any frogs, but HUGE toads!  Nasty!  Haha... it was quite the experience.  We quickly vacated the store for my sake.  

Just a day or two before that experience, we were heading home when a man was passing out free samples from their stores merchandise.  The item he gave me looked like candy.  As we briskly walked away, I looked back at the store to see what kind of a store it was.  It didn't look like a candy store.  I saw my companion eagerly beginning to unwrap it.   I decided to smell the "candy" before I ate it.  She had the "candy" almost to her lips when I exclaimed, "NO!  Don't eat it!  It's SOAP!"  Haha... yes, it was soap!   She was so glad I caught her before she put that into her mouth! lol-- it smelled really good though.  Since our hopes of a sugar high were dashed, we stopped by a street vendor and bought us some candy bars to make up for our loss ;)  

Haha!  Oh!  So the tourist attraction of the week is Times Square!  We were volunteering at a 5K run/walk for Womens Cancers.  We were up at 3:50 to be in Times Square bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:45am.  We donned our beautiful volunteer shirts and stared in amazement that we were REALLY there in Times Square.  Since it was 5:45 am and the streets were blocked off for the race, no one was there.  It was beautiful to not hear horns honking, and seeing taxi's trying to run pedestrians over.  I finally got to enjoy a tourist attraction without all the tourists!  

I was able to go to a baptism this week of our District Leaders investigators.  Mary Lopez is a gem and I'm so excited she decided to be baptized!  We are still teaching Karen Slappy and she is getting baptized on May 25th!  She is so receptive and eager to learn, come to church, and do additional reading than what we left with her!  So great to see her willingness to know the truth!  The work is continuing to progress and we go out and tract, contact, and meet with the ward members each night for dinner.  It's so cool to see how the Lord is placing certain people in our paths to help us learn and grow.

 

Today I was able to go to the temple!  It was a beautiful experience!  I was just crossing the street on the way to the temple when I looked up and saw a familiar face!  One of my good friends, Haley Mae Felton was standing on the corner of the temple!  We went to Disneyland together a few years back, and I just adore that girl!  We squealed and hugged and got some pictures!  Love her!  The Lord knew I needed a good boost from back home!  So grateful for His love and tender mercies!

God lives!  He is amazing!  I love that I have the opportunity each day to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those here in New York!  What an incredible experience it is!  I still have moments where I stop and say, "Am I really on a mission?  Like THE mission I've been hearing about all my life?... and am I really in Manhattan?!"  The answer to all my silly questions is of course YES!  This is such a great experience.  I'm learning to much!  Sorry for the LONG email, but hope you enjoyed it!  I love you!  Thank you for your love, support and friendship (or familyship).  You are amazing and have touched my life!  Hope to hear from you soon!

Love Always,

Sister Weyandt

Week #2

Whew!  Ok!  So today marks 7 full days here now in South Manhattan!  It's been crazy! First off, here is my new address (at least for the next several weeks until I get transferred... but it should be this address for about 12 weeks at least): 

Sister Celeste Weyandt

109 Madison Street #11

New York, NY 10002

Ok!  So we live in Chinatown!  Every day we take the subway to get here, there, and everywhere!  At least once a day I will just exclaim to my companion, "SISTER! We are here!  We are in Manhattan!"  Haha... she will then look at me like I'm crazy.  But really, it's so strange to really be here, among the taxis and sites!  Every day I see the Empire State Building and the Freedom Tower (t

he memorial building in honor or the World Trade Center site).  We live a mile or so away from the WTC site!  Today we are at the Manhattan temple (as we were yesterday), and later we will go for a stroll in Central Park.  Crazy?  Ya!  I think so!

The work here is slow, especially for us since we are staring a new area. So when we started last week we had NO records.  NO names.  NO leads.  But in the past week we have found a list of less actives in the ward (over 700 people... cause I guess people come here to get lost!  And lost they get).  We have also contacted in Union Square and on the streets. We tracted the projects too!  Haha-- all adventures in and of themselves!   The people here put up a tough outside shell, but once you start to talk to them, they are the friendliest people ever!  I love it!  They are VERY accustomed to talking to strangers here in the city!  

We are looking for people to teach, but we have only had 1 formal lesson so far with a wonderful woman named Karen.  We taught her in the shelter where she lives.  Wow!  My first time in a shelter!  But she's amazing and very receptive!  I'm excited to see her progress!  We have another girl named Tashanta who we have visited a few times and have given her a Bible and Book of Mormon.  Hers was the very first project door we knocked on!  She's my age and is such a sweetie!  Another woman named Bella opened her door to us and we just talked with her for several minutes.  Through Gods mysterious ways, we were able to set up a time on Saturday where we are coming back to help her paint her house!  I'm excited to be able to serve this amazing woman!  :D  My companion, Sister Martin is a bit homesick, since she just got transferred from her first and last area of 10 months, the Bronx.  She misses the Bronx (her "home") and often talks about wanting to go back.  Hopefully that will change soon.  

Our ward is INCREDIBLE!!!!  There are only like 2 people in the entire ward over the age of 35!  Very young ward.  The visiting teaching percentage for last month was 68%!!!!! What the WHAT!?  They are super excited about the gospel and sharing it with their friends!  They are excited to have us here and we are motivated by their enthusiasm!  Amazing, amazing people!  

Anyway, I know this is an extremely long letter, but I just wanted to catch you up on life here in the busy, busy city and let you know I love you!  God loves you too!  I have felt the spirit testify to me that I am suppose to be here, right now.  This is where he would have me be!  My testimony is sustained by the impressions of the Holy Ghost!  What an amazing gospel this is!  I just want to share it with everyone!  But, not everyone will listen.  Sad truth, unfortunately.  My greatest desire right now is to be filled with the Spirit and to have the courage to open my mouth and share the good news of the restored gospel with everyone!  It's tricky, but with God, all things are possible!  

I love you!  Write when you can and keep the pictures coming!  XOXO

Love Always, 

Sister Weyandt