Transfer week O.O

So first of all, thank you for the birthday wishes! I've been 20 for an hour and a half and it feels fantastic and no different haha! But i'm not a teenager any more!!!!! YAY!

I also got letters from Aunt Diane and Grandma Floyd this week <3 Love you both! I'm totally sending letters back this week ;D

So bad news of the week. Tony's baptism on Saturday never happened.  He didn't keep his commitments and decided he wanted to go to the mountains instead of his baptism. Grrrr. But oh well.  we're working with him to get his fire back about baptism.

So Monday, we helped Sister Barnes (super amazing member) seal the grout between the tiles throughout her house. and it was fun. She's my favorite member I think over here :D Then we had a district activity.  We played improvisation games and I was having so much fun!!!  There was so much laughter at that activity.  I love my district.

Tuesday, we taught our new investigators Susan and Guy.  We taught them the Restoration and it went well.... until they gave us "juice."  They offered us cranberry/pomegranate juice but now we've come to find out that it was actually just flavored iced tea.  Yeah.  Made us all super sick for the rest of the day.  We didn't drink any after the first sip because it was so gross and we were able to identify it in time..... well they did. I didn't. I was so thirsty so I chugged it down. and i got a massive headache and dizzy.  yep.  no tea. It's gross. Against the Word of Wisdom and makes sister missionaries sick. Bleck!!!!!!!

We ate with the Weltins (Roman and Laura) on Thursday and we had a power lesson and a super good discussion about things.  And HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!! This one will not fall through i promise.  He got his baptismal interview last night and we showed and explained to him how the baptism will go and what the program will be like.  He's really nervous but he's so excited! Especially since he invited all of his family to come watch (and they're not members so AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! more Weltins! So excited!!!!!!!!!).

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........ what else happened this week...... Oh! Sister Anderson got her trunky papers.  She's going home in 4 months! CRAZY!!!!!!!!

We went up into the mountains and did a service project.  We repaired the backboards for the horseshoe pits and it was raining and i got to wear a yellow "Mormon helping hands" vest! YAY!!!! I've always wanted to wear one of those.  

So transfer calls came Saturday night.  Sister Liebelt is being transferred to Bishop tomorrow and Sister Anderson and I are staying in Tehach.  i can't tell you how broken up we are about it.  it's gonna be like there's a hole in our companionship.  But we will be okay.  We'll just write her every week.  We have grown into a strong companionship :D

Oh and I read this super super amazing talk.  Totally strengthened me.  It's called, "The Meaning of the Atonement" by Cleon Skousen.  I'll send it home for you to read familia :D It will completely make sense and strengthen you to no other.  Everything will come together in your head and I was MIND BLOWN!!!!!!!!!!  it helps me think about the Savior and my Heavenly Father's love every second of everyday.  It's totally helped me.

So last night like I said was Roman's baptismal interview.  Well after we showed him everything about what was gonna happen on his baptism, and since Sister Liebelt won't be here for his baptism (insert waterfall of tears here) we took pictures and then performed a special musical number for him.  Sister Liebelt has this super gorgeous accompaniment for "Be Still, My Soul" and Sister Anderson and I sang for him.  I looked up during the song and saw Laura and Roman crying! And then when we were finished, Roman said, "i will forever be grateful for you saving me and showing me the way.  You are angels from God.  i will never forget you.  I love you girls so much.  I will always remember you and your kindness to me.  You are always and forever welcome in our home."

Cried. Like. A Baby.

Roman has taught me so much.  He's taught me that true love knows no bounds and is so eternal.  His love for Jesus Christ is so strong.  He bears his testimony every time we're there about how Joseph Smith is a prophet and that he knows that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  His faith is so strong.  He's expressed how scared he is to do this, but he said that he is ready to make any needed changes to be with the Lord and to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He said that being scared is normal, but acting on faith when you're scared shows the Lord that you're ready for his guidance and strength.  I believe that with all of my heart.  

I know that Jesus Christ's church has been restored to the earth today.  All of His teachings are back on earth.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints isn't just a church that has a passive belief in Christ.  This church is God's church on earth today.  It contains the measure of happiness that everyone needs in their life.  If you haven't looked into these teachings before, I strongly urge you to do it.  I promise it will only add to the faith you already have.  I promise it will bring you the most happiness you have ever felt in your life.  I love you all so much and I want you all to sincerely look into the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is the way the Lord has set for us.  I know this is the only way.  I wouldn't be out here if I didn't know what I'm teaching to be 100% true.

I love you all! Have a great week!

~Sister Hannah Weaver

Baptism this week!!!

Soooooooooo this week is going to be fantastic, but just as a forewarning, this is gonna be a shorter email... sorry.

So Monday!!  we went and taught a lesson to the Weltins (Roman and Laura) and Roman asked when he could be baptized! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! He told us that he knew that Joseph Smith is a true prophet and that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ.  He kept telling us all throughout the lesson that he really loved the gospel and he will do anything to be close to God and now that he's discovered the gospel he will never look back because he's so excited to be part of it.  So his baptismal date is May 2nd.  He's so strong in the gospel already that he's going to turn in his first tithing slip the day he's confirmed a member just so he can show the Lord that he's totally committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  he's seriously the best. And then at church, he told us that he had finally figured out why the Lord had kept him on the earth instead of letting him die.  he said that he's been kept alive so he could learn the gospel in this life and then get sealed to his wife and spread the word about Christ's restored gospel.  Ah! He's wonderful.

Tony Hebert (we thought his last name was Duncan but it's actually Hebert), is getting baptized this Saturday!!!!! YYYYYYYYYAaaaaaaaaayYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! We actually had a super speed bump to get over this week with him.  turns out he and Ladonne aren't actually married legally.  they got married in a church, but had never gotten the paperwork to make it state legal.  So Ladonne was upset and told him to sleep in the garage so they could both keep the law of chastity and then they're getting their marriage license before saturday.  so yup. My comps and i get to be witnesses at their marriage haha! kinda excited to see that wedding ;)

Also, we taught Israel and Aracely this week.  And i read in spanish with them.  that was interesting.  guess I need to start learning Spanish ;D

On Saturday, we helped a member move and i squashed a black widow :D It was disgusting.  i was slightly paranoid about spiders for the rest of the day though. EW!

And then this past week we found 5 new people to teach.  I am so excited to go teach this week.  the Lord is wonderful. and he's definitely hastening the work here in the CA Bakersfield Mission.  

anyways, that was my week in a nutshell. Hopefully i'll have more to say this next week :D

Love you all so much!

~Sister Hannah Weaver

One month!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!

Time has flown.  I have 17 months left. There seriously isn't enough time to do everything.  I love it here, and though I have my down days, I wouldn't trade this experience out here for anything.

So on Monday, we went for a hike with Sister Mifflin (a sister in our ward) and mom she sent you the pictures from the hike so look in your email :D  It was a fun hike.  We saw the bones of a cow leaning against a rock.  I almost took advantage of it and I almost sent a bone home for Calli, but i decided I didn't want to be sending bodies through the mail ;) 

Tuesday we went on exchanges with our Sister Training leaders, Sister Simmons and Sister Larsen in Bear Valley (30 west of us) and I really love Bear Valley.  The whole countryside is pretty much dedicated to equestrian activities and there were horse paddocks and pastures everywhere.  And guess what! I saw my first Norwegian Fjord!!! The horse from Frozen!!! AHHHH! So beautiful!! I got to talk to the horses a lot and my comps cracked up.  So I went out on exchanges with Sister McKenna Larsen.  that's right! She's my friend that I had before my mission!!!! We were friends before our missions and when i got to be her comp for a day we freaked out and AHHHHHH! Talked so much! I really hope we end up being comps officially someday.  So Tuesday was the only day it rained here.  It was 35 degrees Fahrenheit and poured literally all day and we were in the mountains.  Sister Larsen and I went tracting (aka knocked on doors and introduced ourselves) and we did that for at least..... 4 hours?? In the rain :) I was soaked and freezing but it was the best time ever.  We got pictures :D  And we took videos.  We literally drove through the rain clouds at the top of the mountain.  It totally reminded me of Dad's stories of being soaked to the bone in New Zealand. :D Proud Weaver moment! 

So Wednesday, I got a letter from Grandma Floyd and Aunt Julie.  I LOvE YOU!!!! I'm writing you back today so hopefully it'll be there soon :D  Our appointments got cancelled on us that day so we tried to knock doors, but we were unsuccessful until after dinner. We went to the Mullays (our beach body coach lol) for dinner and we had a great time talking.  I did my Gollum voice for them and they just laughed and laughed.  It was fun ;)

After dinner we went to a less-active and part-member family's house.  We ended up staying for an hour and a half because we talked about theatre and broadway and then when I started talking to Brother Poole (he's the nonmember) we started talking about B-24s and war planes.  He was a mechanic in the Navy for i think 6-10 years?? Somewhere in there.  But honestly, it was the best.  I connect really well to veterans :) It's fantastic.  We talked about air shows and classic cars and all sorts of WWII things.  It really was refreshing.

Oh Thursday, my tracting in the rain caught up with me and i woke up with a nasty cold.  But hey! I could sing Bass really well ;)  And our washing machine flooded the kitchen XD Whoops.  So we spent our time cleaning it.  Oh well.  we had a good time cleaning it up.  I also got letters from Momma, Calli Jo and Connor on Thursday too! I'm sending those letters in the mail either today or tomorrow :D  EXPECT WONDERFUL THINGS. :3

Friday was an uneventful day, but that's okay... And Saturday was a baptism for one of the other wards! It was awesome to see their investigator get baptized!!  He glowed when he came out of that water.  he was so happy!

so Saturday afternoon we went and taught Israel and Aracely again, but Aracely was so drunk.  She couldn't put together two sentences! haha! Drunk people. Israel hasn't really gained a testimony of the things we've taught him yet and that was a little frustrating because Sister Liebelt has been teaching him for 4 months now.  So I guess we're gonna start from square one and figure out how to help him from there.

That night was the ward party: A 50's sock hop and talent show! AHHH! it was sooooo cool! My comps and I performed in the talent show and we sang (and Sister Liebelt played the piano) a rendition of "Do you wanna build a snowman" from Frozen... only we rewrote it.  It was called, "Do you Want a Book of Mormon." As soon as we sang the first line, people started laughing really hard.  It was awesome.  Everyone in the ward still talks about it and tells us how amazing it was and how hard they laughed.  We recorded it, so I'll be sending that home :3  Also at the talent show, a man in our ward sang an Elvis song and then he proposed to his long time girlfriend :D I WAS SO EXCITED!! 

Then right after the talent show, Bishop Teare asked Sister Anderson and I if we could speak in Sacrament the next day because his original speakers had both gotten sick. So we both talked in church yesterday.  It went really well.  Although, one of the priests forgot bread... so sacrament meeting was weird.  We had the talks first and the sacrament last. Whoops.  So they won't ever forget that again haha!

So last night (Sunday, obviously) we went and visited with Suzanne and we read some scriptures with her and sang her "be still, my soul."  she's not really interested in learning about the Gospel quite yet because she's so busy.  But the song touched her heart, and her neighbor's heart too.  He came over and asked us if we could say a prayer for his friend. We all had a feeling we should go back there and talk to him again. YAy!!! Then we visited the Scott family; they're recent converts.  So we went over some scriptures that they were confused on and then we talked about the Atonement and how it can help us to forgive people.  It was a really powerful lesson.  

Oh also, when we were visiting someone, I was playing with a hair tie on my hand and it suddenly flicked off and soared across the room.... and landed on the brim of a cowboy hat... I laughed so hard with Sister Liebelt afterwards.  she's the only one who noticed.

So yeah, that was my week. We have a lesson with the Weltins tonight and i'm really really excited to see them again. They're like grandparents to me and i love them so so so much.

Anyways, Gotta go!

Love y'all!!

Love Sister Weaver <3

This Sunday will mark my 1 month mark!

WOOOOOO!!!!! I'm almost a month old!!! ;) I can't believe how long i've been out already! CRAZY STUFF.  So Monday, we went to a zone activity in Bakersfield and we played volleyball and reverse charades.  It was so fun! But the sand was hot on my feet.  Darn that sand. BLECK! But it was great because it was like 94 degrees outside and I didn't get burned!!! (I had 3 coats of sunscreen on.  #whitegirlprobs)

So this Saturday is the ward Sock Hop and Talent show.  Sisters Liebelt, Anderson and I are rewriting, "Do you want to build a snowman" from Frozen into "Do you want a Book of Mormon" to perform at the talent show. It's gonna be so fun! I'll send a recording home soon so y'all can see it! :D

So weird foods of the week: Fish & seaweed flavored popcorn.  Never try it.  it's like a fish barfed in your mouth. it's gross.  Also, I tried Yams and sweet potatoes at a members house for Easter yesterday.  They weren't bad but not my favorite.  For some reason they tasted like.... vanilla custard??? kinda trippy.

Also on Monday, we set a date for our investigator Tony Hebert (we thought his last name was Duncan) and he's getting baptized on April 25! HAAAALLLLAAYYYYLOOOOOOOYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! So that was super fantasmic.

On Tuesday we taught the Weltins the Plan of Salvation and they had no problems whatsoever with it!!! it was so awesome!  The Spirit in their house is so strong!! They truly are amazing people and they are grandparents figures for me.  i feel right at home everytime I'm there.  It was a little hard to teach the lesson for me because sometimes i forget my train of thought right in the middle of the sentence but that's okay.  I'm still learning. I'll get it down eventually.  

Also, we had Zone Training Meeting in Bakersfield this week.  the Zone leaders called me the night before and asked me to read a talk by Tad R. Callister called, "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary" and then give a talk/training on it at zone conference the next day.  It was so scary!! But when i gave my talk, the Lord helped me to say the things that I really hadn't even thought of in my studies.  It was a pretty amazing experience.  i was so nervous about talking until I stood up and started to speak.  Then my fears were just gone.  AWESOME!!

so EASTER!!!! Happy Easter everyone!!! This easter was actually kinda crazy.

Aracely (Israel's wife) raked us over the coals before conference.  it was really disheartening and it was honestly the worst.  On Fridays we usually go over to their house to teach them, but this week we had ZTM so we hadn't scheduled an appointment to come back until Wednesday of this week.  So when we didn't show up, they got mad... like really mad.  She said a lot of choice things.  It wasn't pleasant.  After conference though, we went to their house and sorted it all out and then invited the Spirit back into our hearts and their home with prayer.  So that was taken care of.  Definitely an interesting experience, but it's okay because we resolved the issue and regained their trust.  The Lord really helped us.  It talks in the Book of Mormon about the prophets being thrown into a fiery furnace by the angry people.... well I can now relate to it in my own way.  But just like those prophets, we were delivered from the fiery furnace.  The Lord can soften hearts :)  These things are all for our experience and I'm so grateful for them.

Then later that night we went over to a member's house and had Easter dinner with them.  And yes, I still got to have my honey-glazed ham with grilled CA pineapple on the side ;) loooooooooooove IT!!!

as for conference, my favorite talks were Sister Linda K. Burton's talk on fatherhood and the man's role in the home <3 loved it!  Elder Bednar's talk about fear. SOOOOO TRUE!!  And Elder Holland's talk.  Holy cow. Elder Holland. he's a powerhouse speaker.  When he told that story about the two boys and the sacrifice the older one made and how he had told his little brother to go find a tree branch so his brother wouldn't see him fall, i started crying.  But when he started sliding off of the cliff and the little brother reached out and saved him I bawled like a baby.  My sweet amazing siblings would do that too.  Then when he explained the Atonement of Jesus Christ with that story everything became so real to me.  

So I'll just leave you with my testimony that I know that our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ, died not only for our sins, but he suffered all of our weaknesses, depression moments, and everything that has ever and will ever hurt us in any way.  And do you know why he suffered all of that?  it's because He loves us so much and he never EVER wants us to feel alone.  He suffered those things so He would know how it felt so He could comfort us in our darkest hours.  I can testify to you that I know that Christ has touched my life so deeply that I will always stand as a witness of Him and for Him.  I encourage every single one of you to learn about Christ and get to know Him on a personal level because you will never feel alone.  In my darkest hours, He has always been at my side to hold me and let me cry into His shoulder.  He is my biggest support and yours.  And that's why I'm out here.  I'm here to teach people that Christ did all these things for you.  

I love you all! I'm gonna have another fantastic week :D

Love,

Sister Hannah Weaver