My Companion Is Hilarious!

June 2, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

The Brief Report to the President:

Samuel e Melissa estavam na Igreja! Eles dois não têm mais do que 15 anos, então vamos ensinar as famílias deles mais que eles podem estar na Igreja e ser batizados também!

(Google Translation)

Samuel and Melissa were in the Church! They both have more than 15 years, so let's teach their families more than they can be in church and be baptized too!

It's been great here! I won't lie! My companion is hilarious! Oh, that's too bad about your allergies :( You should spend some time by the beach...that's what I do. The saline will clear your sinuses. Also, I don't think the plants that cause my allergies grow here...they have other plants with names I can't pronounce. I'm glad Allison was able to help you out. She’s a doll, isn't she? Also, if you continue to have problems that medical nose spray stuff that smells like flowers helped me a lot. Yeah, I get your drift ;)...Hey thanks for the package. I'll let you know when I get it. I got a package the other day from Elder Reinhardt's family. It was really sweet of them. They sent it December 31st and it got to me this week! Hahaha, Brasil...

I'm glad Moxie is finally away. Haha. Yeah Butter is an old dog with new tricks.

That's a bummer about Dad's new boss :( I was reading in the missionary handbook today about leaders. It says in there that the job of a good leader is not just to supervise or merely motivate...it is to uplift and edify others, too. I know Dad will do well, He always does.

Yes! Last transfer we started working in the area of Praia de Carapebus. It's close to the beach, so a lot of the people are very friendly. We met this one guy Ubiratan...he is the man. Like literally. He works as a security guard at an elementary school, he's super buff, he surfs, and in his free time his wife says he saves the little baby turtles that wash up on the shore. We've been teaching him, his wife, Tute, and Leticia the daughter. It's hard to get them to church (our area is about 30-40 minutes from the church by Ônibus). But I would love to see that family in white soon.

We have been so blessed. One of the talks that I quote a lot, because it is sacred to me, "I Will Not Fail Thee, Nor Forsake Thee" by our beloved Prophet President Thomas S. Monson talks about this. I love the story of Brother Brems and with Him I say, "Heavenly Father has been so good to me."  Thanks for that quote! It is a personal relationship we have with Him. The Remington's will Thank You. President sent me a nice email today saying that I'm a good missionary :)

Eu amo todos vocês. Eu penso em ti, eu espero que eu possa ser digno de seu amor. Fique tranquilo, O Senhor já venceu o mundo.

(Google Translation)

I love you all. I think of you, I hope I can be worthy of your love. Rest assured, The Lord has conquered the world.

Com Amor,

Elder Weaver

Wow! How Did You Know I Had A Baptism?

March 17, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow! How did you know I had a baptism? I sent a picture of her and her name is Aparecida. Elder Reinhardt got transferred to Campos in part of the mission that's in the state of Rio. He's going to be a District Leader down there :) My companion is the same one. He's been out for a month less than me. It's not often that you have more time than your trainer ;) but my training finished last transfer.

I'm glad to hear all of the great news! I am glad to hear about Todd at BYU-Idaho. I have been worried for some reason a lot about him. I had a dream about him the other day. I hope he is well. How is Ryan? I'll send Brad an email after this one :) And thank you for reminding me about John's birthday. I'll send him an email, too!

Pictures:

Pedro-Ward Mission Leader, Elder Alexandrino,
Aparecida and Elder Weaver

I decorated my Bible some more :) And there's a random picture of my desk because you all know I don't like taking pictures of me, haha.

Bible - Front Cover

Bible - Back Cover

My Study Desk

As for Google Hangout. Yeah, it is better than Skype. But I'm not sure if it is approved. I'll check with Presidente Araújo about it. That would be sweet if we could!

That is so neat Nani gets to speak! If there is anyway you could send me some notes or it written out or something, I would Love to read it. :)

I think about The Atonement more and more and I am learning that we can always learn from it during our mortal sojourn here upon the Earth.

I Love You All So Much! I have been learning more about Trusting in The Lord. And in having more confidence in me mesmo. I think this might have been one reason I chose that scripture for my missionary plaque. Our time in Earth, and my time on a mission, is meant to help us learn to have confidence in ourselves on a level that we could not have learned in our Pre-Earth Life, or for me, even before my Mission. Here's a scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 68:6. My companion shared it with me the other day. " 6 Wherefore, be of good ^acheer, and do not ^bfear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I ^cwas, that I am, and that I am to come." This helped me a lot. It was in Português when I read it.

Fique Firme,

Elder Weaver

So My Report Will Be Different This Week

March 10, 2014

Sunset in my Area

Dear Family & Friends

Aparacida was baptized! But she wasn't at church so we hope to confirm her this week! We are also working with Rafael and Laudimar. Rafael has family in a lot of other churches, but I hope they will let him come. Laudimar has a whole family that will hopefully join him at church this Sunday!

Tomorrow is transfers. We're all staying this week except for Elder Rinehardt who will be transferred. I am grateful to have at least one more transfer here. 

Elder Williams (Zone Leader) & Elder Weaver

The Elder next to me in the picture is Elder Williams, my Zone Leader who I've told you a little bit about. I think he returns home today. I was so glad I had the opportunity to serve with him. He was a great leader. What I learned from him I will carry throughout the rest of my mission and life. 

My District

The other picture is our District. They are so special to me. It feels weird to be done with training again the second time. I don't feel ready, but I guess that's the point. This transfer will be great!

I'm glad what we said helped out a bit. I Love You Too, Mom! If I had all of the mommies in the world, you would still be my favorite :) 

Also, you don't need to send it now, but in the next care package if you could send an extra flash drive that would be great so I could keep copies of pictures and stuff! :)

Yay Aunt Tess! Did you know you could request the Patriarchal Blessings of our deceased ancestors? The church let’s you request up to 4 a month! So, I will hopefully getting a lot of mail from across the veil this transfer! :) I'm glad you had a wonderful experience at the temple.

Allison told me about "Get Air" sounds way fun!

Hey, I was watching "On The Lord's Errand" (the church video about President Monson's life) the other day and I got the impression to share that with Chelsey and Eric. I am glad to hear that they still have interest! Keep inviting. And suggest that video to them to gain a testimony of modern prophets. I think they'd like it. I Loved It.

Elder Alexandrino watched The District 2 for the first time with me yesterday. When I get home, I want to have movie parties of that with you guys. I think You'd like it! :)

I Love You So Much! Thank You for all that you do! :)

Thank You for the scripture last week, it really helped.

Love,

Elder Weaver

Doctrine & Covenants 121:45 - Let thy abowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let bvirtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy cconfidence wax strong in the dpresence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the edews from heaven.

Dear Family & Friends,

I do appreciate all of the emails, yes. :) I am glad you got to celebrate Grandpa Wright's birthday. No, I can't believe it, ha ha. I hope Chad is doing swell. I've been working on letters to you and everyone, but I am still figuring out how to mail them, so they'll either get sent today or next P-Day.

Nope, my companion is still the same one I have had, Elder Alexandrino from Fortaleza, Brasil, but Elder Reinhardt was in a trio with us for a little bit because his companion got emergency transferred. How it works in Brazil is 2 companionships usually live in the same house to save on costs. And right now, I live with Elder Reinhardt and his new companion Elder Nielson but we are not companions right now.

THAT STORY IS SO COOL! Oh. I am so happy to hear about that! I was talking to Elder Quiroz this week, and he told me you can look up the patriarchal blessings of your ancestors on Family Search, so I have been doing that. It is so cool! That is a splendid goal!

Ha ha, here in Brasil...in the front of our missionary planners they offer finding ideas and my companion, when I got here, told me to put a big X through the family history idea. Not because it is a bad idea, but because it scares people here to death. A lot of the time people aren't married, and so they don't want to find out where they came from. It's just a cultural thing, but my companion said he wants to look through Family Search to see if there were any other members in his family because he was baptized when he was 14.

Your comments remind me of something President Uchtdorf said, "Even Moroni, in the twilight of the Nephite nation, believed in Hope!" Oh! If you want a good laugh, listen to the talk, "Come What May And Love It." Elder Wirthlin shares a hilarious story about his daughter and a date she went on. It's hilarious. I won't try to paraphrase it because I won't do it justice.

Your comments remind me of something. Often we do get "too busy" for others. I think catching up with others who have touched our lives and helped us is one way that we show them and Our Father in Heaven that we appreciate, honor, and most importantly, Love them.

I have so many stories to share with you. Here is one of them: Elder Quiroz, and later my companion Elder Alexandrino gave me some good advice. Many people here in the mission were telling me to forget about my mission in the U.S. because Now my "real" mission has "started." What these two servants of the Lord told me was, "Don't Forget Kansas. But just try to apply what you learned there here in Brasil." I will never forget that.

I hope I can apply THAT to Brasil. We may not have baptized much in the U.S., but I hope to develop at least half of the character of the people I met in Kansas, here in Brasil.

I hope you all know how much I Love you. And how much I can see each of us growing. "...The stronger the Trees."

Eu Te Amo, Para Sempre, e Nas Eternidades,

(Google Translation)

I Love You Forever, and in the Eternities,

Élder Weaver

Mission President Weekly Report

February 24, 2014

Esta semana foi muito especial! Aparecida e Fernanda estiverem na Igreja ontem! Aparecida teve uma entrevista batismal e é muito forte. Nós encontramos Fernanda esta semana. Ela tem dois filhos e um pode ser batizado. Os filhos estiveram na Igreja ontem também. Elas ainda têm datas pelo primeiro de Março. Encontramos Luiz esta semana. Ele teve uma data pelo primeiro também, mas não podia estar na Igreja ontem. Esta próximo Domingo ele vai! Vamos continuar trabalhar com Vitória para ter uma data também. Eu sou grato pelos membros e os Lideres e outros missionários nesta Zona. Eles ajudam me muito.

(Translation with Google)

This week was very special! Fernanda Aparecida was in church yesterday! Ali had a baptismal interview and is very strong. Fernanda we found this week. She has two sons and one can be baptized. The children were at church yesterday too. They still have dates by the first of March.  Luiz we found this week. He had a date on the first too, but could not be in church yesterday. This coming Sunday he will! We will continue to work with Victoria to get a date too. I am grateful to the members and leaders and other missionaries in this area. They help me a lot.

Elder Weaver

I Got The Package This Week!

February 17, 2014

Família!

I got the package this week :) Thank You so much. The goodies were so delicious and I'm sure the hangers will help out a lot. Luckily it doesn't rain much anymore. It turns out the missionary who left his mattress cover behind wanted it back so I still need one of those, but don't feel like you need to send it in a package. I think I'll use my card or emergency money to buy one. And I found out this week I think its a mission rule we can't read Church News :( But the Ensign should be fine so feel free to send those if you can :) We have a DVD player for trainings, which can also play CDs, so, yes.

I love my companion and Elder Reinhardt and he is always hilarious to live with. President Bell does email me every once in a while which is amazing to me since he has billions of emails to read from missionaries in his own mission anyway, let alone a missionary in some distant part of our world.

Yeah, I haven't noticed anything about the Olympics, just the "Copo Do Mundo" because everyone lovvvves soccer! I don't think Carnival is for a few months. It's funny. The stakes here have a youth conference every Carnival where they get the youth away from all of the smut and stay in a resort or a member's home that lives far away or something, haha.

I think that will be a wonderful thing to teach your Young Women. When you get into the "real world" it's better to be prepared with all of the right habits. It's too late if you arrive and sink rather than swim.

We had some interesting experiences this week. I was reminded of the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants, "... The ^{aSon of Man} hath ^bdescended below them all. Art thou greater than he?" 

Joseph was not greater than The Son of Man, and neither are any of us. Also, there is a scripture that became the favorite of my teacher, Brother Rosemore, from the MTC. "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they ^aspit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving ^bkindness and his ^{clong-suffering} towards the children of men." 1 Nephi 19:9

And we must suffer, too. Not that we suffer even a decimal of what He suffered, but rather, we learn of Him when we take His yoke upon us. And He did it because He loves us. And we can have joy because we can be brought back into the presence of our Father in Heaven. I don't have much time, but above all, know that I Love all of you. I will email you first every week before all of my friends.  I hope you know because you are my first emailing priority :)

Love,

Elder Weaver

Looking out from our area

Will explain later

Yes, Everything Was Fantastic!

My New Room Mate, Elder Rinehardt

February 3, 2013

To Family & Friends,

Yes, everything was fantastic! Thank you for forwarding all of those letters from the ward. I will work on responding to them today. And I'm going to put The Winnie The Pooh puzzle together :)! And, no, I don't think anyone opened it up. It's hard to believe Allison and I will be 20 this week. This year will be very special to me because 2014, and my 20th year, will be the one year of my life completely spent in missionary service. Yeah, I think this is Allison and I's first birthday apart.

I'm glad Ashley got to hear Sister Kapp Perry. I know she is doing well. I Love being a missionary! When we were in the MTC we sang the songs of Janice Kapp Perry, with her singing along, it was very powerful. During Army of Helaman we sang "...and we are Now the Lord's Missionaries, We'll bring the world His Truth." Muito Chique.

Haha, I'm glad the Seahawks won.

My hat goes off to Dad. The LA airport is a joke. So crazy! But I know he'll do great.

Thank You for the quote I will reflect on it much.

One of my favorite Church-produced movies is "To This End Was I Born" and we got to watch it during our Christmas party in Kansas. Elder Sutherland, a missionary who served in Wellington also, told me that he knows many of the actors in that movie because they're from his stake in California. He told me during the Crucifixion scene the mob couldn't shout "Crucify Him!" so they actually shout "Crysanthemum, Crysanthemum!" because the actors couldn't bring themselves to shout their line. I've been thinking a lot about Him.

If you ever miss me, if you're ever thinking about me, if you want to send me a message about how much you Love me, be a missionary. I'm not saying you need to wear a badge and be "full-time" but be a missionary everyday and lift where you stand. Even if what you have to lift is a mini-cross. Elder Holland said during a seminar for new mission presidents, "When you're missionaries say, 'President, why aren't people just flocking to the baptismal font? Why aren't they embracing the Savior? Why is this so hard?' Now this isn't Church Doctrine per say, but I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because SALVATION WAS NOT A CHEAP EXPERIENCE. Because Salvation Was Never easy! I am not trying to say that we should expect to suffer anything close to The Savior. That would be presumptuous and quite frankly sacrilegious. But if we are to be followers of Christ we must understand that we need to be prepared to suffer on our little mini-version of the path that He walked..." You can do me no greater honor than continuing to follow the example of the Savior. I Love You all so much. If you ever want to feel like I'm near, follow His path. I am not trying to sound as Elder Holland said presumptuous or sacrilegious, but if we all follow the path of The Savior, we'll be walking together.

Also, if you have time listen to "Sunday Will Come" by Elder Wirthlin. It changed my life. Perseverar até O Fim! (Persevere until the End).

Te Amo, Para Sempre, (I love you, Forever)

Elder Weaver

Elder Johnson Has A Lot Of Great Ideas

November 18, 2013

Dear Family & Friends,

Elder Johnson has a lot of ideas and he'll be a great asset to the ward and the work. He's from Dallas, only 15 minutes away from us! He actually took institute from Brother Gambrell as well which I think is kind of funny. No, Elder Johnson was called to the Kansas mission. Elder Holbrook was originally called to the Missouri Independence Mission, but he was reassigned to Kansas when the mission formally came together. I am still in Wellington and I am not cold yet, thank you though. I got a sweater and a jacket if things get dicey. But it's actually been pretty warm still. Whoa! I'm glad Nani's toe is no longer causing her pain. Yes, that sounds like the dream team with Bishop, Dad, and Brother Kahn. By the way could you send me Bishop Jackson's email address, so I can thank him for helping me out so much? Thanks.

Cathy and Nani do a lot for us, I hope they understand how much they are appreciated. Aunt Sandi sent me a letter in the mail the other day with a picture of us at Disneyland :). That seems like so long ago and crazy how time flies. I'm glad Dad always had a Plan. I'm also glad you were able to get away from work.  I Love you; Mom and I love Alma and Amulek. Ammonihah was not exactly an easy area, not that anywhere is, really.

When I was back in Bel-Aire I got to visit with the Gondas, Whalbruchs, Crandalls, and Sister Harris. I was also glad to find out that Sister Beus will be serving in Bel-Aire this transfer. I was worried that after Elder Holbrook left, Sister Harris would fall through the cracks, but I know she is in good hands. Something funny that Sister Sirmans sent me: "The Church is true, the book is blue, and Moroni is on the ball!" That made me smile.

Also, allow me to share with you an email from Elder Wilson back in the MTC:

"Elder Austin Weaver!!

How are ya! Hope you are doing well. Where are ya again? Are you in Brazil Yet?

Anyway, we listened to some Christmas music today and "White Christmas" came on and I thought of you instantly!

Love ya and hope you are doing well!!

Love,

Elder Wilson"

That made me feel really good, too! :) Elder Reinhardt is in Brazil and sent me a picture of a tarantella just chilling on the side of a wall. I almost went into cardiac arrest.

I know I say this a lot, but I really do Love President and Sister Bell. I believe one of the reasons I came to Kansas was to meet them. They just make you want to be better. Jesus is The Christ. Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is true.

My almost 3 days with Elder Holbrook was wonderful. I really felt like we were different people and it was nice to see how his training had affected my missionary work and probably the rest of my life. Elder Hudrlik is doing good as well. I made some new friends, and it was good for me to say good-bye to the area. Elder Nichols is hilarious!  Everything happens for a reason.

I Love the song "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief." Sometimes we are this man, and sometimes we are the man giving help. And in reality, we are only serving The Savior.  Another one, "Lead, Kindly Light." This may have become my favorite hymn. Amid the encircling gloom, the Lord is there. Ether 6:5: Sometimes the Lord takes us through the stormy ocean before we get to the Promised Land.

Stay Lovely.

Love,

Elder Weaver

I Love The Kansas Wichita Mission!

Flying to Wichita

July 15, 2013

RE:  Oi! Como Vai?

Entao,

I LOVE THE KANSAS WICHITA MISSION! So far, I have taught about 3 different people. Sister Harris is a lady in her 70's. She reminds me of Aunt Sandi. She his hilarious! She calls the missionaries "her boys." She has been receiving lessons for about a month now. She reads the Book of Mormon and her only hold-up on Baptism is that her kids don't want her too. They're super controlling, but it sounds like she wants to join the church regardless! She went through chemo this year and so she has a few wigs she calls "her girls." She seems to be doing a little better now. She maintains a positive attitude despite having a heart condition.

We taught Boney. Boney is a Seventh-day Adventist. So, he attends the institute and church. He loves the Book of Mormon and believes it to be scripture. He has a problem with worshipping on Sunday. He feels that Saturday is the Sabbath day (since he is an SDA). He said, "I'll worship both days if I have to!" So, we're doing our best to help him work through that so he can be baptized and partake of the restored gospel!

Anne. So, I wanted to organize the area book because it was in bad shape (Dad, thanks for teaching me that the Lord's House is a House of Order, and for teaching me to be orderly). So we were tearing it up in the Area Book and we wrote down names of people that stood out to us that we should visit. (There were a lot of people who were dropped or were not continuing to have an updated teaching record for no reason! Crazy! Missionaries need to understand the responsibility they have for God's Children.) Anyways, my companion and I went on splits (they call them "Team-Ups" down here, but I don't really like that name) with a member named Shane. (Shane is less active due to anxiety issues he has with large groups of people, but we got him to come to church this Sunday!) So my companion felt inspired to visit this one person named Anne. She let us in and told us how she had just finished surgery and wanted to come to church! She had a Book of Mormon already and we are going to attempt to visit her this week even though she has many doctors’ appointments. So, we returned to the Area Book to review her teaching record, and it said she had received a witness of the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon! She had only not committed to baptism because of her previous impending surgeries. And when we looked for her address it was not on her teaching record! We still don't know where my companion got her address! This is nothing short of a miracle.

Gabby! Gabby! Has been meeting with the missionaries for a while now. She was fellowshipped by her boyfriend Brandon. I got to teach a lesson to her with 5 other missionaries. So cool! We went over the Baptismal Interview questions with her and obeying the law of the land. She set a date to be baptized for next Saturday! She had wanted to wait until it felt right to set a date and she said it feels right!!! She has so much faith. Brandon has been deployed somewhere far away so he won't be able to attend but he is so supportive and wants her to continue with her commitment to be baptized whether he is there or not. She has a two-year old daughter. Sister Cluff was also there helping teach the lesson! Member present lessons are always so gooooooood! I cannot stress how important it is for members to work alongside full-time missionaries.

My companion's name is Elder Holbrook. He's been a pretty good trainer so far. He's from Utah, a town called Farmington. He is the complete opposite of Elder Cervantes. Elder Holbrook will talllllllkkkkkkkkkk all day long if he can! He is super funny though and his enthusiasm and talkative nature will be good for me as I prepare for the remainder of my missionary service. It's funny because he actually just barely finished his training and now he's training me! With the number of missionaries out now, this will probably become more common than rare. We have 3 sisters serving in our ward as well. Sisters McKay, Christenot, and Tenney. Sister Tenney is waiting for a Visa to Brazil as well. We practice our Portuguese a lot with members of the ward who served missions to Brazil.

Also, I ate dinner with the Howards last night. Brother Howard served in Portugal, and his wife is hard of hearing. So! I got to speak Portuguese with him and I used ASL to communicate with her! It was way fun.

I got to go, but I Love Y'all!

The pictures are of me and two angels the Lord sent me. One is named Elder Noll, the other is Elder Critchfield.

Press Forward Saints!

Elder Weaver

Elder Noll & Weaver

Elder Weaver & Critchfield

Elder Willett doing his "Blue Steel" Face. Sister Sirmans and Elder McKnight are in the background.

Elder Reinhardt and Elder Weaver

Elder Cervantes and Elder Weaver 

Nosso Distrito

Elder Michael Truman Capawana. This man is both a gentleman and a scholar and he is one of the funniest people you will ever meet!

Elders Wilson, Weaver and McMaster, My Roommates

The Lone Angolan (Elder Whittaker) and I

The remnants

In the quiet misty morning when the moon has gone to bed, when the sparrows stop there singing and the sky is clear and red!

P.S. Also,

I'm in the Ward where the mission home is so I see President Bell all the time! It's so great! I thought you'd like to hear that. The members have been feeding us super well. (In fact I wish they'd lay off so I could actually learn how to cook, but that's alright.) I Love You, So much!

Thank You for sharing your scriptures and thoughts. I Love You. Your Portuguese is coming along, I see ;) One scripture I have been thinking about lately is in 2nd Kings chapter 6. It talks about how the servant of Elisha is frightened and then the Lord opens the eyes of the young man that he may see. And he sees chariots of fire, angels, and multitudes of heaven there to assist him. Even though you are distant, I have never felt you so near. 

I Love You, Mom.

Elder Weaver