I Am a Child of God

Hello!

This past week has been quite eventful!  I am BEAT. Last Monday we said goodbye to our friend Sonya who is moving to Texas.  She isn't a member and she's from Australia, (she was staying with some people in our stake for a few months) and we will miss her!  She wrote down our emails so she can let us know if she ever makes it back to Utah.  She is one of the nicest people I've met and while she wasn't that interested in taking the discussions, we definitely built a relationship with her that hopefully, she'll always remember.  I know I will!

Unfortunately, last week we were supposed to have a lesson with Shelby and she texted us a few hours before and said she didn't want to take the lessons anymore...we tried to text her and we tried to go over to see her but she's avoiding us :( so we're not really sure how to continue right now...hopefully the ward will scoop her and her parents up and include them some more.  They are great people.  Pray for Shelby!

Last week we had 15 lessons!  That is great! Our Stake President wants us to have at least 20 a week, so we're getting there :) We are BUSY, to say the least!  But I like being busy, so it's wonderful having so much to do.  We're still in the process of planning our huge stake activity, and it's a little stressful, but I am so glad we get to help the stake engage in something that will help them to do missionary work :)

Hilary Weeks came to our stake this past week!  She is an LDS singer-songwriter, and she is so funny!  She talked about how we can become instruments in the Lord's hands, and how we need to be aware of the words in our lives.  She showed us some pictures of an experiment her family did.  They cooked some rice and put it in two jars.  They labeled one "Love" and one "Hate".  They placed them in the same environments.  They would say kind things to the love jar and mean things to the hate jar.  After 6 days the hate jar had mold on the bottom, and after 2 months the hate jar was half empty and filled with mush, while the love jar still looked pretty good!  It was crazy!  Apparently, the vibrations in their voices reacted with the water in the rice, and the mean tones made the rice react badly while the nice tones helped the rice stay intact.  We were all amazed!  Our words really to make an impact, whether we think they do or not.  She sang several of her songs, one of which was "I Am a Child of God".  I used to make fun of that song when I was younger because we always sing it, but the words have really helped me as I have grown.  They have especially helped me lately on my mission.  I know we are all God's Children, and He really does love us.  He is always there, listening to us. 

This past weekend we did a lot of service!  We helped a couple paint that just moved in.  Brother Higgins is a member but he has not been to church in a long time.  His wife isn't a member.  They are so nice and cute!  We painted their whole front room, and they have pretty high ceilings!  I wish I had pictures, but I didn't have my camera that day :(  it felt good to help somebody.  Speaking of feeling good, on Saturday morning we headed over to a house in our stake to do a pretty big service project.  It was us and a bunch of men from the Elders Quorum!  They were cutting up big trees in a lady's backyard, and we stacked the firewood by her fence for her.  She seriously has enough firewood to last her a lifetime!  I loved doing that for her!  She is pretty shy and doesn't accept a lot of help from her neighbors, so we were really happy that we could all help! We're even having dinner with her and her daughters tomorrow night.  I'm not sure if any of them are members or not, so this will be a fun experience :)

And to top it all off, the Women's Meeting on Saturday night was amazing.  When we all sang "I Am a Child of God" I felt the spirit so strong.  I really do know we are all His children.  He loves us no matter what, just like President Uchtdorf talked about.  I can't wait until conference so we can hear even more from our prophet and apostles :) what a big blessing to have them on the earth!  We might be going to conference this time, so I'll let you know next week!

Well, I better get going!  I love you all and pray for you.

Sister Wight 

Our Bishop rented a replica of Mater from the movie "Cars"

Another prop that our Bishop rented

One of my favorite families :) 

We try to take pictures of ourselves...I really do have a pumpkin head 

"All right-who wants some?  Who's next, huh?  How 'bout it?"

***If you're wondering what the above quote means, you wouldn't know unless you've seen "Army of Darkness"--and it takes too long to explain:)***

And it came to pass that there were no letters in the land for the space of many days...

Hello Everyone!

First, to explain my title....please write me!  I haven't received any letters in a long time :( But thank you to everyone who has sent me little gifts and surprises!  I have loved them :) they always brighten my whole week!

Well this past week has been great! We were able to attend the Draper Temple last Tuesday, and we were almost late but made it just in time!  I love the Temple :) as I was in the Celestial Room a scripture came to mind: Joshua 1:9.  I love this scripture, and I know that our Heavenly Father really is always there for us.  He will be there to listen, to love, and to answer our prayers.  Speaking of Temples, we were able to attend the Ogden Temple Re-dedication which was broadcasted to our stake center.  I loved it!  Elder Bednar spoke, and he is one of my favorites.  President Monson shared this scripture in his talk: John 14:27.  I love that scripture too! We can always receive peace from the Savior, no matter what is happening around us. 

We had another lesson with Shelby and talked about the Plan of Salvation.  I asked her to be baptized and she paused and said...."Probably".  That was good enough for me!  Haha just kidding, I guess a probably is better than nothing!  She is really shy and we aren't quite sure if she's taking the discussions because her best friend is lds or because she really wants to become a member of the church.  She says she feels peace when she goes to church, so we are going to continue working with her!  She is a great girl :)

I found one of my new favorite quotes: "It is better to be kind than right".  That is so true...I have found that it is a LOT BETTER TO BE KIND TO OTHERS THAN TO TRY AND BE RIGHT ALL THE TIME.  Woah - sorry that was in all caps!  Hopefully you'll remember what I said now ;)

We had a meeting with our Stake President and all of our Bishops where our Stake President told everyone he created a facebook account for our Stake.  He put our big activity on there too!  It is called "Take It or Leave It" and it is a huge clothing exchange.  After everyone comes to take clothing they need, we will donate the rest to a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City.  As people "shop", we are going to have live entertainment from less active and nonmember people in our stake :) we even have someone performing who is from the a capella group called "Voice Male".  Look them up!  Anyway, we are super excited!  We want a bunch of people to come and it will be on November 1st.  The news is spreading fast around the stake :)

Has anyone heard of the movie "Meet the Mormons" that is coming out October 10th?  A member in one of our wards works in the finance department for the church and knows a lot about it!  He said if you go online and register to see it, they will put the movie in more theaters around the country so more people can watch it.  So find out how to register!  It sounds like a great movie :) and the trailer is online. 

Alrighty, well that's all for now!  I'll attach some awesome pictures for you to see :)

Love,

Sister Wight

PS Later today we will be burning some items for my year mark!  I'll take pictures.

Here's a picture of my district in front of the temple...don't we just look heavenly?

I love this quote!  I had to take a picture 

We set up chairs for the re-dedication.....

Sister Mobley and I yesterday :) people always ask us if we're twins.......

I'm on the "Stairway to Heaven"  :)

After the Trial of Your Faith...

Our pday switched to Tuesday this week because we are going to the Draper Temple later on today.  Yesterday was an amazing day, and I just wanted to share the experiences Sister Mobley and I had with all of you!

We started off our day with a District Meeting, and the past week or so has been pretty hard.  We hadn't found people to teach, the people we had found weren't really turning out as we had planned, and we were getting a little discouraged.  At District Meeting we always have some time to share the miracles we've seen, and Sister Mobley and I didn't share anything while every other companionship did and they saw all of these amazing miracles in their work.  Well after that meeting, we had lunch with the Van Komen's and helped them do some yard work since they're pretty old (they are the couple from Holland). :)  Then we met a man named Darius who said he was Lutheran but didn't go to church.  I asked him if he still believed in Jesus Christ, and he said yes.  So I replied "Well, He's who we're talking about, so when can we come back and visit with your family?" and he told us to call him next Tuesday!  It was so awesome :) 

Side Note: Roberta (who we taught once) moved away but we saw someone in the ward who has a way to contact her and will get her new address so we can send missionaries to her! 

Anyway, so then we finally had a lesson with Shelby :) she has gone to christian churches before, and said she likes the peace she feels when she goes to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We taught her the first lesson and she agreed to keep meeting with us :) it was so wonderful!  Her friend Emily sat in on the lesson too, which was super cute.  They are both 13 and we were so glad Emily was there to support Shelby.  

Later on we had dinner with the Flygare's, and Brother Flygare (who is not a member of the church) said he always goes to church, and that they want to invite their neighbor to come to church.  He is a member but hasn't been to church in forever.  We tracted into him and offered to help clean his house since he has a bad back, and now the Flygare's are going to bring him with them to church! :)

There are so many miracles that happened yesterday, I can't even write all of them!

Last night we had a lesson with a less active man we teach (who we met one day last transfer randomly and talked to in his front yard).  The transformation that has happened in him in a miracle in and of itself!  His two grandsons always run off and play when we come, but this time they both stayed because we taught our lesson using fun activities :) and we told them they'd like it.  They are really smart and seemed to understand the lesosn really well!  Their names are Tave and Xander, and at the end of the lesson we asked them if they had been baptized and they said no.  We asked them if they'd like to, and they both said yes!  So we asked them to ask their Mom if they can continue the lessons and if they can get baptized.  It was so amazing!  We went over to teach Brother Kinsley, and we had no idea all of this would happen!  His wife and daughter are also not active.  Our ward mission leader even showed up at the end of the lesson to say hi to the Kinsleys, who said they have never met nicer people than the ones in this neighborhood.  I know that everything happens in the Lord's timing.  I know He answers my prayers and that He is blessing us by helping us find His children that need to have the chance to learn about the gospel.  When we walked out of that house, Sister Mobley and I just hugged each other and laughed/screamed!  I cried the whole bike ride home!  Miracles really do happen.  It may take time, and it may take a lot of patience and hard work, but they happen.  After the trial of our faith...(Ether 12:6).  Ever since I have come to this area I haven't seen any baptisms or really even any investigators that progressed towards baptism in our stake (Mickele was in the YSA stake), and I was really struggling with feeling like I wasn't helping at all and that nothing I was doing even amounted to anything.  And even though I know that that is Satan, and that I have been helping a lot of people, yesterday just helped strengthen my testimony so much.  I feel so humbled and so blessed that Heavenly Father would guide us so much and lead us to His children that need help.  We found three new investigators just yesterday when usually we try to find three per week.  I feel Heavenly Father's love for me.  I know He loves each of us and that our Savior knows how we feel.  He is always there when we go through our own trials of faith, no matter how big or small they may seem.  That knowledge has helped me so much these past few weeks.  I love this gospel and I love the Lord so much.  The gospel is true, and we are becoming so much more through the help of our Savior and His Atonement than we could ever become by ourselves. 

Love,

Sister Wight 

Thank you so much to Mom, Dad and Juke for the flowers!  I LOVE them:)

Us with Brother Van Komen, about to go do yard work in our skirts and his huge boots!

You'd be stupid….

Alright so I'm going to have to summarize everything really quick (sorry my emails have been so short lately!)

- we taught a polygamist family with 8 kids and one on the way, and the father told his kids that they needed to make their own decision and if they found out the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true they'd be stupid to stay where they are 

- we have a huge zone now! we have a bunch of older couples and a lot more elders

- had a lesson with a nonmember who grew up polygamist but doesn't go to any church now - he has a lot of questions but we invited him to general conference!

- we're memorizing Joseph Smith History 1:15-20 because it is so powerful and we want to be able to know it

- my favorite sentence from preach My Gospel this past week: "Through the Atonement we can be freed from the burden of our sins and strength to face our trials."

- one of the families we teach has a son who demonstrated the "Truffle Shuffle" for us (its from the Goonies, look it up!)

- a nonmember is helping us with our huge stake activity -he can do everything he has so many talents! Heavenly Father basically dropped him in our laps since we need a lot of help with the activity

- we gave our Bishop's wife a birthday card and her birthday was in April...oops

- we met with a less active family from Samoa and they are the sweetest people (their daughter has the cutest little voice ever)

- we rode our bikes in a hail storm

- two families in the 6th ward fasted for us and the missionary work here in the Stake :)

sorry that was so short!
here's some pictures to make up :)

Love,
Sister Wight 

This truck is from the 1930's!!

****I am sooo happy to say that this Thursday is Leslea's 1-year mark:)  In some ways it seems kind of fast, but some ways really slow:(  but it won't be that long now!  I'm so happy that she is serving and loving her mission, but I cannot wait until she gets home****

"The Terminator"

This past week has been great! I found out from some people in the first ward that they have been calling me "The Terminator" since all of my companions leave after one transfer with me.  I laughed so hard at that :) BUT we made it through transfers and we are both staying right here in Riverton :) We are both really happy because there are many miracles happening!

A couple transfers ago I randomly met a 19-year-old named Brandon, who has dreadlocks and wears interesting shirts...he also smokes. But he is so nice and has a lot of questions.  A lot of the time we will be biking around and I'll have a feeling that we should see if he's home.  The spirit works!  Last week I had a feeling we should go over, and he ended up being there.  We asked him if he would come to church and if he was interested in taking the discussions, and he seemed a little hesitant so I sang him "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" and afterwards he agreed that he would like to learn more.  We are so excited to keep teaching him!

We are in the process of planning a stake activity to include less actives and nonmembers, and we are super pumped about that!  We want it to be service-oriented and fun :) any ideas would be greatly appreciated! 

I have been feeling really happy lately because I know that things happen in the Lord's time.  I know there's always a purpose for the things we go through, and if we endure in faith we will always learn and grow. 

I want to write more but the computer is really slow and I'm running out of time!

I'll try and send pictures!

Love you!

Sister Wight

My district

We hiked up in Bells Canyon last week on pday! So pretty

A sheep just for you, Mom :)

One of the less actives we teach- he had shoulder surgery and this is how he answered  the door :)

Another "no soliciting" sign--this one's probably pretty effective;)

We were biking and found a plum tree!  They looked pretty weird but they were super good!

Eye freckles and neon plums

At one of our dinners we had chicken rolls! Not as good as yours, Mom :)