Chased by a drunk guy

Two dudes in the cold

So, Scotty’s kind of a furry, huh? Remember Elder Burwell? He was a furry! He was way into it too. haha Anyway, that is awesome that Scott spoke with a girl!!! hahaha That cracks me up! Tell that punk that I haven't heard from him in a while!​ And hey, that is funny about day light savings and you missing part of church!! You probably did that on purpose! haha

A good week this week! We have more and more new faces at church each week. People are also starting to come more consistently.

We have great less actives that we have found and some that are still really struggling. One of the better examples came from 7-year-old Arseni this week. He has been a great example to his less active family and makes at least one of them show up to church each week. We also had a less active at church this week named Tamara. Unfortunately, she left after the second hour, mad that we have a three hour service. She said she is not going to come to church anymore. She tried to get others, specifically our new convert Tanya to leave with her. It was cool that all of our members stood firm, but were still nice to Tamara and tried their best to help her calm down.

Another great thing that happened this week was Oksana came to our branch party after church! The members made her feel very welcome and she wants to start coming to our seminary class that we hold with one of our young adults each week! She is definitely drawn to our church. It is just a matter of when she realizes why she is being drawn back to this church!

I look good . . . mostly because
it's out of focus.

Elder Williams and I have been going over language concepts for the last couple of days and he has been learning a lot and understanding a lot better! He improves each day on his attitude, his character, and his language abilities. I have not always been perfectly patient with him, and have not been a perfect trainer, but he has become a pretty good missionary in the last couple of transfers that I have served with him. He has definitely learned a lot.

Those pictures with the chainsaw was service for a lady who chops wood with an axe to heat her house! Elder Williams and I figured out how to get the chainsaw and got her a month or so worth of wood!

I want to share something I shared with my branch this week during our meeting. I particularly think of my sister while typing this. On my mission, one of the greatest lessons I have learned and continue to learn is that happiness is a choice. As hard as that may be to accept or do, it has always been our choice. 2nd Nephi 2 has become one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. Especially in the end of verse fourteen where it mentions that there are things to act and things to be acted upon. So, more specifically, happiness isn't just a choice, it is our choice.

Fried cinnamon, sugar, chicken,
toast. Yeah, I wasn't man enough
to try it.

When sharing some of these thoughts in sacrament meeting, I thought of one of my best friends, Elder Schoenfeld. Despite his mother being on her death bed, and his family against him going on a mission, he chose to serve. Two weeks later his mother passed away. Something interesting is that I have only seen Elder Shoenfeld get emotional once, even though I have served next to him for most of my mission, and it wasn't because he was sad. It was because he thought himself lucky to be able to serve his mission while, at times, knowing that his mother was by his side.

I can't think of a better example than him that shows that happiness is a choice. Though what do we need to choose? That is answered in verse 27

27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men . . .

We are free to choose and the choice is to turn to the great mediator. If we can make that simple yet life changing decision in our lives we will be happy, even in the hardest of times. If we really try to identify with him, and try our very best to seek him through prayer, we will find happiness. Our sorrows only give us a better understanding of what Jesus went through described in this beautiful verse written by Isiah:

Can't wait for the warm.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Great pictures this week! Paige is looking really cute without her braces! Mom, everything is holding up so don't worry! For the next package, my favorite things are pictures, cards, and Jolley Rancher Chews.(: Paigey, I love you and I think about you often. I hope you are hanging in there. I wish I could be with you and go through some of the stuff you are going through. I love you!

Elder Weston

What you have to do to maintain that bod.

p.s. Tanner sent us some video of he and Elder Williams getting chased by a drunk guy. The video was too big to add to the blog, but if you see me (Tanner's dad) and I have my laptop with me, I will show you. (They didn't ever seem to be in danger. The man was too drunk to run. Tanner and Elder Williams were laughing.)