Acts 4:29, 31 -- Speak the Word with Boldness

Hey Family!

   I´m writing on Tuesday because yesterday we had a conference with President Kahnlein. I hope that everyone was able to watch the special session of the Mission President Seminar on Sunday.  It was SO GOOD!  I loved the videos and the Spirit could be felt all over the world. The one video of the family spreading the Gospel really impacted me.  For starters, it reminded me of our family and the great devotion that we have shown to Heavenly Father through the daily family scripture study and prayer that we always had.  Also I am sure that Heavenly Father is pleased for the examples that we are always setting for those around us. The second reason that I loved the video was because it showed how normal and rewarding missionary work can be.  Each family member was able to share their testimony in different ways.  The Work of Salvation is best acheived when the members and the missionaries work as one.  The Quorum of the Twelve want missionaries to be full of appointments everyday that come from references from the members.  They don´t want the missionaries to have time to knock doors.  This is not only the vision of the Apostols but also of the Lord. He is hastening His work.  The world is changing but the message that we have as members of the church is still the same.  If anything, it is needed even now.  The church is doing a great job of adapting to the changes of society and I am excited to see how the results that come from these changes.  

   Like I said in the beginning of my email, yesterday we had a conference with the Mission President.  Around 40 missionaries from Coquimbo and La Serena met up together in a chapel and we were all enlightened by the powerful words of our leader.  He focused the conference on our potencial and living up to it.  There is always something better that we can do to devote more to Heavenly Father and President really wants us to find those weak points.  He wants us to truly grow into servants of God who will remain dedicated after their mission.  The asistents showed us a very great way to use the pamphlets that the church provides for our investigators.  Near the end of each pamphlet are questions and scriptures that contain the answers.  These questions can help our investigators realize that they Book of Mormon has answers to all our questions.  They can feel the Spirit testify of the truth of the Book of Mormon as they search for the answers.  As a little gift, the asistants gave us a combined version of all the pamphlets put together so that we can study them more in depth.  During the conference, President Kahnlein showed many videos that brought the Spirit, including Mormon Messages, The new Jesus Christ videos, and some old seminary videos.  He explained to us that these videos were made not only for the members, but for investigators and missionaries too.  He then gave us all a dvd case that had 4 dvds in it full of videos from the church.  All the videos put together have about 10 hours of footage. Practically every subject that we need to cover with investigators before AND after baptism has a video that helps explain the principle better.  I believe that all my soul that President was inspired when he made these DVDs. 

   Last night after the conference, Elder Yorgason and I passed be a recent convert who was baptized around 5 months ago.  His wife is a member as well but his sons have never been interested in listening to us.  Last night, the youngest son Nacho was there.  I had never really talked to him, so, before he could go upstairs to play videogames, I started a conversation with him.  The rest of the lesson was then lead by the Spirit.  Nacho´s parents and my companion gradually started joining in on the conversation and before we knew it, we were talking about baptism.  We found out that he has always wanted to get baptized but never had enough desires to talk to us.  He wants to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost so that he can help his family more.  When he mentioned that, my companion and I, without looking or talking to each other, both reached into our backpacks to grab a pamphlet about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We read with him the section of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and then invited him to be baptized the 14th of July.  He excitedly accepted and told us that he would do everything he needed to in order to prepare.  When we showed him the questions in the back of the pamphlet, he got even more excited.  He had never had the oppurtunity to really read and pray about the Book of Mormon and promised to deeply search for the answers.  Elder Yorgason and I realized that we had followed exactly what the Asistents had done during their practice earlier in the day.  The Spirit prompted both of us to follow what our mission leaders had told us, and we saw the successful result that came from it.  This is the Lord´s work.  He will tell us what we need to do if we turn to Him.  We must dedicate all to Him so that we are always open to revelation.

  I´ve included a few pictures of a part of my area.  I live directly under The Cross and La Parte Alta is full of hills, as you can see.  If I have time, I´ll try to send more photos.

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

D&C 42:14 -- Spirit Comes by Prayer and Faith

Hey Family!

   I can´t believe that the week has come for the setting apart of President Weidman.  Right now as I am writing this,  I can feel a strong confirmation that dad and mom have been chosen by Heavenly Father to serve in Los Ángeles.  He knows that they will do miracles there and that they are ready and worthy to perform their duty.  I know without a doubt that they will direct the Lord´s vineyard and His workers with power and love.  I´m blessed to be the son of such wonderful parents and everything that they have taught me in my life has led me to do good on my mission.  

   I want to share 2 experiences that my companion and I had this week.  The week was one of walking and following the direction of the Spirit.  Many of our appointments fell this week, but we were still able to have wonderful spiritual experiences that I know would not have come if we had not been obedient with exactness.  

First experience:  We have an investigator named Osc.  He is around 30 years old and we have never been able to enter his house, only teach him outside. We had an appointment with him Wednesday night but when we arrived at his house, his uncle told us that he had recently left to go buy food.  We decided to wait at the door step until he returned.  A few minutes later, we saw him walking back from the local store.  He saw us and immediately turned around to walk to opposite direction.  We were appalled and had no idea why he would avoid us.  We were then inspired to continue waiting for another 5 minutes.  Normally we would not have done that, but during that moment we both felt a strong need to wait.  A few minutes later, Osc walked around the corner of the opposite end of the street.  We immediately walked towards him and began a conversation.  He told us that his day had gone horribly and that we would have to meet another day.  Knowing that he needed help,  we asked questions and found out that his ex girlfriend had called him and made him feel extremely sad.  He felt that God was punishing him even though he lived a good, clean life. He doesn´t drink nor smoke and knows that every problem in life is for our benefit.  We shared a Alma 7:11-12 with him and testifyed of the atoning power of Christ´s sacrifice.  His face lit up with a smile as we told him that and he suddenly became a lot happier.  He agreed to begin reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning that night.  I am amazed and happy by the change that overcame him.  The Spirit truly does miracles. 

Really quick I will tell the second experience.  Thursday was a tough day for us.  All our appointments fell and none of our back up plans were home.  We were walking down a street at the end of the day, a bit sad due to the lack of teaching for the day.  We passed a house and I looked at it without any thought.  Then I looked at it again, yet didn´t act on the impression of the Spirit.  Having already passed the house by a few feet, I felt that we NEEDED to knock that door.  I told my companion and then we followed the impression of the Spirit.  A 19 year old woman answered the door and accepted us in.  We had a great lesson with her and she promised to read the chapter in the Book of Mormon that we left her. We have an appointment with her tonight.  Some times, our own thoughts block those of God.  We must ignore our own carnal desires and follow the will of God.  As we gradually do that, our own desires and wishes will be in line with the desires of our Heavenly Father.

I pray for and love you all!

Elder Weidman

D&C 38:30 - If You Are Prepared, Ye Shall Not Fear

Hey Family!

   This week was a great one with a lot of walking and working.  It´s still very cold here but I´ve always loved the cold so I´m not complaining too much.  In this past week,  I have knocked more doors than I had all my mission!  It was great because someone was home at almost every door!  We spent about 3 hours on Wednesday only knocking doors and setting up appointments for other days.  The 3 hours ended with an amazing experience.  We had an appointment in one direction of the street in 20 minutes and needed to start making our way up that street.  My companion than asked me if we could go the complete opposite direction and knock a few doors down that street.  I happily agreed, knowing that he was being led by the Spirit, and sure enough the first door we knocked was answered by a 30 year old man.  With a smile on his face, he encouraged us to enter into his house and quickly informed us that he had gone to the LDS church many times as a youth but then moved and lost contact with the church.  He told us that he had read around 50 pages of the Book of Mormon but then lost it in the process of moving.  Due to the lack of time that we had, we quickly testified that the Lord had led us to his doorstep and promised that his second chance had arrived.  We set up another appointment with him and then left with a word of prayer.  I was so grateful for the Spirit guiding my companion and for our willingness to follow His direction. Never question a prompting of the Spirit!

  On Friday´s they have an event here called La Feria.  A lot of the citizens of La Parte Alta set up stands of food, clothing, or whatever it may be and then people pass by and buy what they want.  Elder Yorgason and I decided that we would do a little proselyting in the Feria for an hour and we had a LOT of success with it.  We brought a couple of packets of pictures of Christ and then, standing on a corner, yelled that we were giving away pictures of Christ for free.  The words ¨Christ¨and ¨free¨ were triggers to all the people.  They rushed to us and started choosing the ones that they wanted.  We were able to write down around 15 addresses before the hour was over and also gave a Book of Mormon away!  We would have kept going but we eventually ran out of pictures!  It was an amazing experience and I felt like the early missionaries who stood on boxes and preached the Gospel.

   Next week I will include more about the specific investigators, but I hope you´ve enjoyed my awesome experiences from this week.  Also, I play the piano for church... All the lessons paid off!  Thank you for keeping me going in piano, Mom! Those who have Summer Break, enjoy it! Those who have work, enjoy it! Those who have to pack a house up, try to enjoy it!

I love and pray for you!

Elder Weidman

Mosiah 5:7 -- A Change of Heart through Faith

Hey Family!

   I´m really happy here in Chile.  This week was an amazing week, and Elder Yorgason and I love our area.  Even though it´s freezing in the mornings and nights, we still have lots of energy to go out and work.  We pump each other up so that the coldness goes away.  La Parte Alta (my area) is a hilly peninsula (spelling?)  surrounded by the ocean.  The views are amazing no matter the weather.  Since winter has started here, there is fog in the mornings.  Once the fog clears up, we are able to see all of Coquimbo and a bit of La Serena. I´ll grab some pictures this week so that you all can see what I see everyday.

  This past Friday I traveled back down to Viña Del Mar for a District Leader Conference with President Kahnlein.  I was able to see my trainer (Elder King) while I was down there.  He goes home in 4 weeks, which is TOO weird for me because I remember when he had 14 months on the mission.  Oh how the time flies.  The conference was awesome and I received a lot of revelation for my district as well as for myself.  President is truly called by God and receives revelation personally for our mission.  I know that without a doubt.  He loves each and every missionary in the Viña Del Mar Misión.

   This week my companion and I worked really hard to find new investigators.  When I came into La Parte Alta, most of the investigators won´t progressing, therefore we were in strong need of new investigators.  It´s amazing what faith, prayer, and action can do.  We were able to find 9 new investigators, including one family of 3!  My first family on the mission and they have a baptismal date for the 29th of this month! Each day, we had the faith that if we worked 100%, the Lord would place the chosen investigators in our path.  We began each day with a prayer and then saw the miracles of the Lord.  Every single day.  The only thing that stops us from being true disciples of Christ is our faith.  If we have true faith,  everything else will fall into place.  We will have the courage to ask the Lord for help.  We will have the determination to work until the last minute of each day.  We will teach with power, authority, and the spirit.  We will do all that the Lord asks of us through obedience.  Then it is up to the investigators to use their agency wisely.  This is one of the biggest lessons that I have learned so far on my mission.  And I have learned it more than once.  It amazes me how I manage to fall at times, and yet my Heavenly Father still has mercy for me.  He still believes that I can do it.  He is always here for us.  He will never abandon us, even when it seems that everyone has abandoned us.  We must continue reading the scriptures, praying, and becoming like Christ everyday.  If not, we will fall to the temptations of Satan.  God won´t fail on us, we will fail on Him.  KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS.  The overall message of the Book of Mormon.  Obedience.

   Well I hope that you all have enjoyed the thoughts of my mind.  I need to learn to organize them.... But I hope that they help!  Sounds like Wyatt´s baby blessing was amazing!  I loved seeing the pictures!  Let the Coppell peeps know that I pray for them!

Love you all

Elder Weidman