Isaiah 61:1 - My Calling

( Let me take a deep breath before I start this email).....

Hey family!

Two years ago to this month I was spending my last few weeks with the family. I was able to make use of every last second before my mission by fishing in Alaska, spending a few days in the Utah House, and best of all spending precious days with the family.  Many of my friends already had a few months of their mission experience under their belts and all I wanted to do was follow in their steps.  I still remember the anxious feelings that I had as the countdown began winding down. Then without even realizing it, the night arrived of when I would be set apart by a worthy Stake President.  I spent the last few moments of that night trying to imagine how the next two years would be.  The date of the next morning was the 22nd of August 2012, my assigned day to enter into the MTC. I finished packing the suitcases and then waited with the family.  We left the house and shortly arrived to the MTC.  The fact that this would be the last time that I would be with most of my family for 2 years began to dawn on me as the last photos were taken, but the excitement to begin my long awaited mission over powered the other feelings. I was dropped off at the curb of the MTC and, after saying a quick goodbye, walked away while fighting off the desire to look back.  I didn´t need to see them in order to know that they were there supporting me in every step that I was going to take.

After spending 2 months in the MTC, I realized that, as I arrived to Chile, my time spent there was meant to easily make the life change.  I thought that I had a pretty good grasp on Spanish but once I began talking with the Chileans, I realized two things: 1.  There is a Chilean Spanish and 2. They talk SO fast that it seems like they don´t take time to breath! The first area where the Lord needed me to work was in Limarí, Ovalle.  My amazing first trainer, Elder King, helped me straight off the bat put my heart into the work.  Instead of giving me time to unpack on my first day, we hit the streets and immediately began talking with people.  That first experience with my trainer set off the focus of my mission: Spend every minute of the day fulfilling my purpose as missionary. After six weeks, Elder King was sent to Valparaiso and Elder Crist, a missionary who immediately can gain the confidence of anyone, became my second ¨papa¨. We spent the following 3 months underneath the scorching summer sun in Ovalle and it was there where I learned never to complain as Laman and Lemuel always did.  There are miracles each and everyday and we decide whether or not to look for them.  The Lord then decided that my time was finished in Ovalle and I was sent to Con Con, where Elder Rivera taught me many things about Chile.  I was truly blessing to have a Chilean companion because in those 6 weeks I gained a never-ending love for the country of Chile.  Through Elder Rivera, I was able to gain a deep understanding of the Chilean culture and understood that the best way to serve these people was by loving them with they same love that they always had for me.  I was then able to share all that I had learned with Elder Farnsworth as we spent quite a bit of time in the house as he recovered from the operation he had been given.  He also taught me the importance to always put the Lord´s Will before anything else.  As he told me all about his life and mission, I seriously thought that Parley P Pratt was sent to be my companion.  A converted missionary. The short 3 months in Con Con came to a close as I was called to serve with Elder Yorgason in Parte Alta, Coquimbo.  Upon arriving to our sector, I began to realize that I was about to have my first experience with the challenging hills of Chile. I soon learned from my companion that the hills are only challenging if we allow them to discourage us because everyday he would leave with a huge smile and everyone could see how happy he was by the way he walked and talked. I great teaching was left by Elder Yorgason to never let the discouragement dampen my spirits on the mission.  Every single door can be shut in our faces or the streets can seem like water slides due to the rain, but if we have a uplifting attitude, we will always be happy.  I was able to transmit the same spirit to my next companion Elder Dawson, who was arriving straight from the MTC.  We enjoyed our short month together, where he taught me more about repentance than I had learned in my whole life.  In that moment I was able to witness the example of a humbled son of God who put the blessing of repentance before his own pride and desires.  Elder Morales then replaced my companion and, in the 2 quick weeks together, showed me how one must apply their faith in every single prayer that they offer. I would have loved to have spent 6 more weeks with him, but the Lord had different plans for the second half my mission.

Quillota, the land of the avocados, was calling my name as I arrived to the change meeting.  Elder Sosa, a dear friend of mine, and I spent 4 months together and as I think back on the experiences we had together, I begin to understand why I miss that place so much.  The members, our converts, the missionaries, and even the sudden trips to other sectors in the zone help me realize how I was changed by focusing on the needs of others.  Elder Sosa and I were able to help many people as we truly consecrated ourselves to the work.  Elder Brown then replaced him and, through his way of teaching, I saw how the Gospel is the only thing in this world that can truly bring us joy from heaven. My 6 months in Quillota came to a close as I was called to work in my dream area, Valparaiso. Elder Baird introduced me to the amazing city and also left me always looking for the Lord´s Hand in the work.  With him we were able to follow the Spirit to God´s children who were waiting for us. Then Elder Bojorquez and I experienced a handful of events that truly changed our perspective on life. Together we were able to help others conquer (sp?) the unexpected trials of this earthly life. Elder Bojorquez also taught me about the importance to deeply think about teachings of Christ so that I can always apply the blessings that come from His sacrifice. Now I find myself in Quilpue and have tried to teach my companion Elder Swindler, all that I have learned in these past 2 years.  I don´t think that we were given enough time together but that doesn´t stop me from trying. I don´t feel that I deserve all the blessings that I have received but I know that I must share what I have learned with others.

The truth is that my two years of the mission will shortly end, but my eternal dedication to consecrate myself to the Lord´s work has just begun. I thank you all for the support and prayers made in my behalf.  Soon we will see each other and I will try my hardest to tell about the experiences I´ve had on the mission but I believe that only Jesus Christ will be able to truly understand the full change that I have made.  I love you all!   

Elder Cory Weidman 

DyC 84:88 - I'll be on your right and on your left

Hey Family!

  Do you all want to know how I feel right now?  Let me tell you then.  This morning in our companionship study, Elder Swindler and I read a talk by Elder Tad R. Callister called ¨A Consecrated Missionary¨ (mom you sent me this talk about a year ago and it changed my mission).  In that talk, Elder Callister explains the change of nature that a missionary must have in order to become as the missionaries in the Book of Mormon.  Near the end his talk, he mentions about Roger Bannister who broke the 4 minute mile. ¨He collapsed at the finish line into the hands of his well-wishers¨. I feel that I am running the same race and that I have now approached the last 100 meters.  If I don´t give it my all and keep sprinting even through the finish line, everything will have been in vain.  The Lord has set the standards for this mile race and He has said that one must serve with all their heart, might, mind, and strength until the ¨Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.¨ So now to answer the question: I feel great! I have realized that through out my mission, I have always dedicated all my efforts in serving the Lord.  My willingness to leave everything behind began the day that I entered the MTC.  The difference, however, is that now I have studied Preach My Gospel from cover to cover and know how to apply it in the Work so that the Spirit is the true teacher.  I have the same determination and devotion but the big change is that, through deep study and meditation, I can truly say that I love Jesus Christ and I understand what I must do in order to have His Atoning Blood convert me into a consecrated servant.  I invite all who read this to consider the blessings that come to each and everyone of us due to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Let His blood and sacrifice free you from the bonds of the Adversary! It is the one thing that we must do while in this earthy life so that our family can live together forever. I hope that you can feel the testimony and love that I now have of Jesus Christ.  I love you all!

Elder Weidman

DyC 100:5-8 Speak thoughts God puts in your heart

Hey family!

   The week flew by like always which isnt the most pleasing thing for me. I'm trying to make use of every minute that I have left while trying to make it pass by slow at the same time, but I've come to the conclusion that it is imposible.  When you are lost in the work, the time doesn't matter.  Every minute is spent giving your all.  The continuos effort given out should never decrease from 100%, whether it be 11 in the morning or 930 at night. Your mind should be competely focused on the Lord's work.  You should not let anything distract you from your purpose as missionary.  In Doctrine and Covenants 4 it says that the eye should be single to the glory of God but I would like to talk about the Spanish translation.  In the spanish Doctrine and Covenants the word "eye" is replaced with "mira" which means "scope" in English. Like the scope that is used on a sniper rifle to aim directly at the target. If the scope is used correctly, you can hit exactly where necessary with 0 doubt. Dad has a lot of experience and I´m sure that he would be more than pleased to explain with more detail the benefits of a scope! In Mission Work, you must have your ¨scope¨ pointed with 100% zoom at God´s purpose which is to ¨bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man¨. Once your vision is at that point, nothing will effect you.  You won´t even notice the things that are passing around you because the all your efforts, desires, and prayers will be consecrated to Him.  Not a single distraction will be able to enter.  What an amazing promise.

   The work here in Quilpue is beginning to explode.  We ended the week with 3 bautismal dates: 1 for the coming Sunday and 2 for the one that will follow.  The 2 for the 10th of August are a brother and sister.  The brother is Lucas, who I talked a little about last week.  His schedule is a bit difficult because he is only home at 930 pm during the week, but we have been taking advantage of every second that we have with him.  He inicially had a baptismal date for the 3rd but after introducing us to his sister, Cata, and explaining to her about how his view on life has changed in the past 2 weeks, he happily accepted an invitation to be baptized with  Cata on the 10th!  They both are reading the Book of Mormon together and if one has a doubt or fear of being baptized, the other will comfort them with advice and make sure that they are happy. It´s awesome to be able to teach a brother and sister and see how they are united in this decision.  Great examples!

Love,
Elder Weidman

Ether 12:27 - Weakness Become Strong

Hey Family!

   Well the transfers came and now I am working in Quilpue with my new companion, Elder Swindler. He has just started his second transfer in the mission field so Ill be covering his training for the next month. He is from Riverton, Utah and is the youngest of 7 so we have a LOT in common.  He understands how hard and stressful it is to be the youngest in a big family :). JOKE! No, we have talked a lot about how blessed we have been in our lives to have older siblings who have been huge role models in our lives. I feel really privileged to have Elder Swindler as my new companion because he came to the mission spiritually pre-trained.  You cant even tell that this is his 8th week in the field because he shows his tremendous faith through his comments and actions in the day.

  The Lord blessed me too much by sending me here to Quilpue.  A day has not pasted where we have not found a new investigator.  2 of those investigators now have baptismal dates for the 3rd of August and we are working with 2 others so that our baptismal goal of 4 for our time together can be accomplished. On of the investigators with a baptismal date is named Lucas.  He is 18 years old, was in prision last year, and wants to have a complete change in his life. We taught him the plan of salvacion this past week and he understood everything! When we explained about why it was necessary for Adam and Eve to eat the fruit, he practically yelled that it made so much sense.  At the end of the lesson he accepted a baptismal date and said that he wanted to do it so that he could live in the Celestial Kingdom!  I love when our investigators understand the Plan of Salvation.  My favorite moment is when the light bulb clicks, a smile comes on their face, and the Holy Ghost is seen in their eyes. It is an undescribable moment where the investigator usually gains their first testimony of the Restored Gospel. Lucas came with us to Church yesterday and we were able to get to know the members together. We plan on having contact with him everyday this week in order to help him continue progressing.

   Saying goodbye to Valparaiso was truly a sad moment but once we arrived to the transfers meeting and sang Ill go where you want me to go, I felt a spiritual assurance that I need to be in Quilpue. 

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

DyC 9:7-8

Hey family!

   We woke up to rain this morning, which ruined our desires to play soccer with the ward members who are on winter break, but that means more time to clean our apartment!!  This week we´ll have transfers and I´m pretty sure that I´ll be sent off to a new area to finish off the mission.  The truth is that I would love to open up an area or something similar but if I have learned one thing on the mission it is that the Lord usually has something else in mind that will allow me to consecrate even more than what I can imagine. The truth is that I will truly miss the members and friends here in Valparaiso if I am needed in another sector especially due to the life changing experiences we faced together.  I never would have thought that experiences so spiritually impacting would have happened to me here in Valparaiso but I have come to understand the purpose behind every experience that I have had and each one has led to me trust more and more in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. After having seen how the Atonement can change peoples lives, I now know what I must continue doing throughout my life in order to accomplish my purpose as a child of God.

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

Helaman 15:6 - Unwearied Dilligence

Hey family!

   The title of this email has a lot to do with what happened this week. In the moment, we don´t have many investigators so we have been working extra hard on finding news and the zone has also been passing for the same situation.  Realizing that the lack of investigators was a problem all over the stake of Valparaiso, the Stake President, High Priest assigned to the Mission Work, and us met together with the Bishops of every ward in one huge meeting in order to develop a Stake level plan of how to involve members more in the work.  A stake mission plan was made that consists of two sides: the ward council side and everyday member side. Here is the first part of the plan: First, members of the Ward Council, accompanied by the missionaries, will visit every single active family in the ward and will explain the ward mission plan with great detail.  Second, the Bishopric will do divisiones with the missionaries of their ward at least one weekend of every month. Third, all the members of the ward in organized groups will spend one Sunday afternoon of every month visiting the less active member families that have at least one person over the age of 7 in their home who is not baptized to encourage the family to return to church.  These are the 3 actions that the ward council has the responsibility to bring to pass. 

   The second part of the stake mission plan is for each member and focuses on helping the members make the participation in missionary work be a natural part of their lives.  Every member will be given a Preach My Gospel (fulfilling Elder Ballard´s invitation) and a hard cover Book of Mormon.  The families will focus one family home evening of every month on Preach My Gospel so that they can apply the teachings and see the blessings. It will be a family goal (like seen in this video  https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng#media=16902107223790014226-eng) and they will always have a Book of Mormon available to give out.  The ward and full time missionaries will pass by often to give brief training and answer any questions had.

   It´s a very spiritually inspired and thought out plan that is difficult to write in an email with the little time that I have.  But like I said before, the main purpose of the plan is to have the members develop personal testimonies of the Work of Salvation so that they too can participate. 

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

Mosiah 7:18-19 - Put your trust in God

Hey family!

   I can´t believe that I am already writing another email again. The days are going by quicker and quicker and I have no way to make it pass by slower.  This week I went to the area of one of our missionaries who has been struggling a bit lately with the disobedience. In my time in the mission, I have come to realize that there is always a reason behind the disobedience that is not seen.  Some missionaries who see these disobedient missionaries immediately  judge them without trying to know nor help them.  This is not the way to do it and many time this will cause a missionary to be even more disobedient. The best way to help this type of missionary has two steps (from my own experience): 1. See them in God´s eyes (President Monson´s talk in the October 2012 Conference) and 2. Dig deeper and find the iceberg underneath the disobedience (Preach my Gospel). The iceberg may come from homesickness, lack of faith, frustration, a misunderstanding about the rules, or even at times lack of sleep.  Now I will return to the experience that I had with this elder.  I went to his area with desires to help him change.  I have about 6 months here in the zone and he has 4.  When he arrived, there was not even a lick of disobedience (does that make sense?) but through the past months, we noticed that he was changing.   I knew and had seen his true potential and was praying, practically begging, that this interchange with him would help him in his conversion process of the mission.  I already had a strong relationship with him, so I straight up told him about what we had seen, and how we desired to help him due to the love we felt towards him.  While walking in the street, he told me that the disobedience had come from frustration.  Frustration in not seeing results, especially from the contacts in the street.  Our Mission President always has promised that if we do 20 contacts each day, we would be blessed with results.  I helped him realize of the blessings that he had been receiving before when he was happily doing the 20 each day, and of the blessings that he had lost when he stopped.  He expected that the blessings would come through more investigators, better numbers, more baptisms etc, but we talked about how he personally had become spiritually strengthened during those contacts.  We then offered a prayer so that the Lord would show us even more blessings from the street contacts and then set the goal to do the 20.  Let me tell you that our prayer was answered!  The Lord seriously placed about 5 people in our path that day that truly were striving to make a spiritual change in their lives.  One of the best days of my mission.  That was a day when we saw miracles in the street.  We must have the faith that those days can happen everyday, and not get discouraged when it doesn´t happen.  There is always a reason why!

Love, 

Elder Weidman