Sister Matalyn Weaver

Hallo jullie!! It's been a crazy week. We had our Christmas devotional on Tuesday, which was so fun!! I was able to play a lot of the music, and I always love that :) One of my favorite things is helping people feel the Spirit through music and I had ample opportunity to do that! So I loved it :) I was able to see a lot of missionaries I've served with in the past which is so much fun! I just love people. So many friends haha! Tuesday was also my two year anniversary of going through the temple! I love the temple so much. There's so much peace to be found there. Find time to go to the temple for me, please haha :)  I was the designated driver for 6 hours on Wednesday! That was crazy. Drivers here are a little different than in Utah. But we survived, and Sister Arnold is back to driving again haha! Thursday marked my SIX MONTHS as a missionary!!!!! I wasn't ready for that milestone. Still not ready, haha. But I'm excited for everything I have coming up in the next ye

Hallo iedereen!! This week has been crazy! We had a lesson with one of our friends Wednesday night. She said she wants to be baptized again!! We asked if helping her work towards being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is something she'd be interested in, and she said yes :)) so we're pretty excited to help her with that! We had our ward Christmas party this past weekend too, and we found two potential families to teach. They know people in our ward and are interested in learning more. We have a lesson set up with one of the families this week, I'm so excited to see how it goes!! We had zone conference this week!! It was amazing, as always. I was able to see some missionaries I've served with before and that was so fun! I love catching up with people. I was able to play the piano for the meeting too, and I loved it. I LOVE helping people feel the spirit through music! I'm playing for our Christmas devotional tomorrow night too, which I'm super ex

Hoi iedereen!! Ah! What a good week. It's the first week of the transfer, but I can just tell it's going to be amazing already!! :) My companion and I have the same first name, so that's pretty awesome. We spell it differently... which isn't that big of a surprise haha! Transfers were really fun. I got to see so many missionaries!! Including the one and only Sister Rogers :D And Zuster Dunford!! Just so many good people, I love all of them.  We've met with a lot of members from the ward this week! It's been so fun to spend time in their homes and get to know them. A lot of them have had younger kids. They always apologize for the chaos haha, but it's an unnecessary apology. Sometimes I miss the noise and chaos that lots of kids bring! I've developed the ability to ignore small children running around and focus on what people are saying. It's served me well on my mission haha!!  We met with two members on Wednesday for lunch. They are both the SWEETES

Hallo iedereen!!!! I'm getting transferred!!!!! I found out last night, and I'm leaving tomorrow morning. And I'm SO EXCITED!!!! I felt like I was probably leaving, but I knew I'd be ok with wherever the Lord sent me. I'm going to the Woodbridge Zone in the Lake Ridge 1st area :) I'm really sad to leave my wards, especially my YSA ward, but I can't wait to try something new!! This week was really good! One of my companions was pretty sick so we took it a little slower. We had our last district council on Wednesday and that's always a bittersweet moment. I accidentally ended up doing a musical number with an elder in my district haha, he sang the first verse of Silent Night in Japanese, then I sang the first verse in Dutch, then the whole district sang a verse together in English. It was really cool!! The whole meeting was really spirit filled. We all bore our testimonies. Man, there are some spiritual giants out here on missions! I'm so grateful to b

Hoi iedereen!! Hoe gaat het met jullie?? Ik ben super goed!!! Deze week has geweldig zijn :D Tuesday marked my 5 months as a missionary, which was so crazy. I feel like I just left. I don't think I'm already 5 months into this journey but here we are haha :)  Thursday was Thanksgiving! We ate with two families in our ward, and it was so fun. The food was amazing and it was just so wholesome. One family had smoked turkey and oh MAN it was delicious. I could eat it for days.  We've been doing a lot of tracting and other finding this week. We went to knock on one door of someone who's record we had. We got up to the door and heard really loud music from the other side, it sounded like somone was singing karaoke..... we stood there on the front porch looking at each other, like should we knock..? We decided not to, and just walked awkwardly down the sidewalk... we circled around the block, knocking a few doors, and tried to go back. He was still singing away. So... we decid

Hallo jullie!! Hoe gaat het met jullie?? My week has been good! We've been plugging along at that good old missionary work :) We had our district activity today! It was a lot of fun. We had Thanksgiving dinner together. The elders brought me a cake because they knew I was a little sad about not going to the Netherlands.... tell me that's not the sweetest thing ever. 😭 ...they also bought a flag thinking it was the Netherlands flag? It wasn't, but now I have a new flag to add to my Netherlands and Belgium flags!! We have been doing a lot of finding this week. We got a referral from the Spanish elders, who's super cute and really interested!! I'm excited to start meeting with her and helping her work towards baptism :) we served at the farm again this week too! I forgot to mention this last week but we were there on the day we passed 100,000 pounds of donated produce for this year! That's the best they've done ever. It's awesome because they've realiz

Hoi jullie! Holy wow this week has been nuts. We had a mission tour with a member of the seventy. We had a lot of meetings, including zone conference! It was a lot of fun. We got a lot of cool revelation. I was able to recite our missionary purpose in excellent Dutch in front of everyone at zonecon so that was pretty cool haha :) I'm not going to the Netherlands in two weeks... Which is sad. Not super surprising, but sad. There are missionaries flying out the beginning of December that have their flight plans. And odds are I won't be leaving then because I don't have any flight plans. I'll probably stay in Virginia until the end of December or January. Which is ok! I still love it here, and the Netherlands will be there when I get there haha :) ...Our friend that wanted to get baptized no longer wants to get baptized. She told us never to call her again and got up and walked out of the lesson. It was pretty dramatic. And heartbreaking, honestly... I just want everyone t

Hallo iedereen! Hope everyone has had an amazing week!! My week has been pretty good. I'm adjusting more to my companions, their personalities, and the way they do missionary work. So that's been really good :) Sister Taylor and I were making dinner this week and started talking about country swing dancing! I have been a few times with my friend, but by all means am still a beginner. We definitely started swing dancing in the kitchen though, and it was so much fun!  We've had some very Spirit-led nights lately. Last night was really cool because as we were praying about where to go, the name of a less-active sister in our ward popped into my head. We'd just tried to stop by the night before but I felt like we should go back. We were able to catch her at home and get to know her for a while! It was awesome to be such an instrument in the Lord's hands. :) Then we headed over to the house of a referral we haven't been able to get in contact with either. But Sis Tay

Hallo jullie!! It's been another week! I've been adjusting to the trio life, and it's been quite the adjustment. A few quick things from this week!  - We found 3 new friends! That's been pretty cool to be a part of!  - We planted 30 trees at Clifton this weekend, it was fun!  - My companions love how open the sky is! The amount of joy and happiness they feel brings more joy into my life :) Hope you have all had a good week! Don't forget to pray. The Lord will hear your cries, whether they're metaphorical or literal. The church is true!! I'm so grateful to be a part of the Gathering of Israel! Love, Sister Weaver

Hallo iedereen!!  Seven days have once again come to pass. Haha. But yeah, it's been another week! And a good one! We had a church tour this week with our friend Teddy!! He LOVED it, it was so much fun!!! We're definitely going to get him to church soon ;) We had our ward trunk or treat this past Saturday! It was the best trunk or treat I've ever been to. There were a bunch of cute carnival games set up, and the YW put on a haunted house. Plus the trunk or treat! Sister Rogers and I dressed up as angels, and we were adorable.  I got my visa stuff turned in!! I was waiting for one more thing to be delivered. It got misplaced at the mission office, so it was very much a tender mercy that we were able to find it so I could get it all gathered and sent in. Now we just wait for the official word on visas, then the official flight plan... I'm supposed to leave a month from yesterday! and four weeks from tomorrow!! Ahhh it's nuts. I'm so excited, but so nervous. And al

Hoi jullie :) How is everyone?? I hope y'all are doing splendidly!! It's been a good week here in Manassas! We were able to meet with Ev again Monday night! She said she still wants to get baptized!!!! So that's awesome :) We're going to slow down a little and focus on the little things, like prayer and scripture study. If you have a basic testimony foundation, you'll get through so much. (And also--if your testimony is struggling with something, just do the thing. It's really the only way to gain a testimony of that!) Ian is doing well too!! Hopefully he'll be able to make it to church again one of these days, he has a hard time getting work off.  We had interviews this week with President and Sister Crankshaw!! They are amazing, I love them so much. We spent Thursday up north working on more visa stuff! I had a doctors appointment, got my fingerprints taken, and spent another 2 hours at the mission office working on visa stuff. We left the mission office,

I'M GOING TO THE NETHERLANDS!!!!!!!! Hallo iedereen :) It's been a good week hehe :) So first things first--I got an email about starting my visa stuff this week!! And my estimated departure date is November 24th!!!!! The day before Thanksgiving, also 5 days before my birthday haha.... :) Happy birthday to meee i'm going to the Netherlandsssss :D I was not expecting the email at all. I've been trying to focus on the work here in Virginia and not be too worried about leaving. I figured it'd be another few months, at least. But suddenly I'm just hoping I'll make it to Zone conference next transfer! I'm so excited to go, but I'm so sad to leave... I've made so many amazing friends. But there will be amazing people wherever you go! (I just have to remember that haha ;)) so yay!!!! nederlands :D That was the biggest thing to happen this week. It was kind of a big thing, so yeah that's fun haha :D I spent a good two hours at the mission office on T

First of all, general conference was amazing!! I loved the focus on covenants and temples. I want to gain a better understanding of the covenants I've made. I loved the talk by Elder Dunn about making small but steady improvements. It takes patience but it definitely works! It's something I needed to hear for my language study. I wish I could say I was always happy and excited to study Dutch... but small and steady improvements are all you need ;) I also loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk that was in a similar strain of thought. If we don't focus on consistent, daily repentance and improvement, our life can get way off course! I LOVED the simple process he gave us to change our lives! If you want to change your life, change your day. If you want to change your day, change your hour. You gotta act now! The only thing holding you back is you and how you use your agency! All of conference was so good. I loving hearing the words of our prophets! The church is true!! We also had zo

Iedereen!!!! Ahh this has been an amazing week. Last week was a little rough, but I was able to get a priesthood blessing Monday night. And oh man, I love priesthood blessings. It's amazing how much it helped me. Tuesday was sooo good. Sometimes the day after P day is a little rough, just trying to get back into things. But having a priesthood blessing the night before made it so easy. I just love the priesthood. I'm so grateful that God gives us such easy access to His power, as long as we are worthy. We only need to ask for it!! Tuesday night we had some really good gospel conversations with a few people. We weren't able to get their numbers, but we gave them ours!! While we don't know how much will actually come out of it, it was really nice to have people actually willing to talk to us!! It helped boost the missionary morale a little haha :) Wednesday was AMAZING because we were able to put our friend Ev back on date!!!!!!!! It was a really cool experience, actually

Hallo iedereen!! Here we are again. It's funny how some weeks fly by, and others just ... don't. This week was a little longer. We've been doing a lot of finding! And haven't really found much! We knocked a door on Tuesday. A lady answered, but she didn't speak english. She had her son come talk to us. We said we had a message to share about families! And he said we could come back the next day!!! So we went back Wednesday to teach him and his family. But ... his dad answered the door through the ring doorbell. (I don't like those things. At all.) He said thanks for coming, but because of our religion we can't talk about. Which was weird, because we've definitely talked to other people of that religion before. But ok, I guess... We at least planted a seed in the son. Hopefully! We went knocking on Friday night. Sis Rogers had a prompting to go to a specific road. We were so pumped and ready. We got to this road and both felt like we should knock on a hou

Mijn eerste transfer is over!! Which is so cazy!! I'm super grateful that Sis Rogers and  I are staying together. I think I could have handled transfering or getting a new trainer, but I much prefer to stay this way haha. I'm learning how to be een goede zendeling and Sis Rogers and I are about to hit our groove. I can feel it haha :) I had my first last district council this week! Which was a little sad, but most of our district is staying the same. So that's good!  It's been an interesting week, for sure. Our YSA friend that fell off date a few weeks ago met up with us, and she wants to keep working towards baptism!! So that's super exciting!!! She's really the sweetest. We had two lessons this week and she came to church yesterday. Hopefully we'll be able to answer all her questions and get her to where she feels ready for baptism.  I led out tracting for the first time this week!! Which went better than I expected it too, but still not great. I tried to

Hallo iedereen!!! Wow. Another week. It flies by so fast, I swear... this week was so good!! We had an AMAZING, spirit filled zone conference. It was so good. I took like 8 pages of notes! One thing President emphasized during ZC was teaching those who are excited for baptism. We shouldn't be dragging them along, trying to force them to keep their commitments. We aren't here to plant seeds any more, the field is white! All ready to harvest!! Sister Rogers and I started the week with about 11 people in our teaching pool. Due to the counsel we received in ZC, we dropped 4 and have 6 more on a "pending" list.... we currently have one friend who's progressing and loves learning about the Gospel. And man, are we grateful for that one friend!! It's taken a lot of faith to let so many people go... but we've been promised a lot of blessings for doing this. As we show the Lord we have faith, He will lead us to those who are ready for baptism and excited to accept H

 Halloooooo iedereeeeen hoe gaat hetttt?? This week was so good!! A little crazy, as always.  I'm getting better at identifying and following promptings and it makes me happy haha :)) Earlier this week we were going to go finding and were trying to figure out where to go. We said a prayer asking where we should go, and a new member popped into my head. We've visited her a few times. After we prayed I asked Sis Rogers if we'd knocked in the area where this new member lived. She said yeah, we've covered the area pretty well, so I kind of dismissed the thought and moved on. We were getting ready to leave and the member popped into my head again. I told Sis Rogers I felt like we needed to go there, so we did!! We talked to a few people. One guy asked if we believed in the COVID vaccine, cuz he'd join us if it meant he didn't have to get it... we said yes, we do get vaccines. He wasn't interested then 😂 after we knocked a few doors we were heading back to the ca

Hallo iedereen!! Wow this week has been crazy. And amazing. Like always haha ;) We had a tornado warning on Wednesday!! We didn't get a tornado, but I didn't realize Virginia got tornadoes... I know what to do in an earthquake, but not a tornadoes. It was a little scary haha! I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday! Definitely a good way to introduce myself to the ward haha. I get to give the same talk next week to our YSA ward, so that's fun! Sis Rogers and I also did a musical number in Relief Society! We did a piano cello duet of I love to see the temple. It was so fun!! I love sharing music with others :) So. Sister Rogers loves peanut butter. But only one specific kind of peanut butter. (Skippy creamy reduced fat.) Last transfer they tried all sorts of different kinds of peanut butter. Meaning we had SIX jars in the apartment. I used two of them in some PB bars I made last week, that were super delicious. Then we threw one jar away cuz it just didn't taste goo

 You guys!!  Ah this is crazy, it's already been two weeks. ....And it's only been two weeks. There is just so much!!  But a few stories from this week!!  Wednesday we had district council. It was so fun!! We played a version of Jeopoardy, put together by the district leaders. It involved nerf guns and lots of random questions. As you do, you know.  I was kind of struggling after district council. I have this problem where I want to know everything but I want to skip the process of actually learning  it. Niet prima... everything is this way. getting to know people, learning dutch, learning how to be a good missionary, literally everything. There's nothing you can do that you'll be good at the first time!! And that frustrates me sometimes!! It was hitting me pretty hard on Wednesday. I asked God for something, like just a way to know He was still there and he was listening. It wasn't even a formal prayer. Just kind of a thought, asking for help. I made it

I made it!!! I'm here!! As a zendeling in Virginia!! It's my first P day in the field, and WOW. It's been crazy. So so crazy.  Monday we flew to DC!! There were 25 or so missionaries that flew in. It's the biggest group they've had in a long time. We met President and Sister Crankshaw and the APs and drove to the mission home. We had dinner and a little meeting, then went to a hotel to stay the night. Tuesday we met at the stake center for a few more meetings, then we met our trainers!!!!! My trainer is Sister Rogers and she is AMAZING. We're like the same person I love her haha!! I'm so grateful I got a trainer I get along with, It's definitely made the transition to missionary life easier.  We do a lot of service!! Last week we served at a food pantry, two thrift stores, and an education farm. It was so fun!!! I had yellow watermelon for the first time and it was DELICIOUS. We had a few lessons with members, which was fun!! They're a

 Hey everyone!! It's so hard to believe I'm done with the HMTC!! Time really does fly haha. I finished class this morning, then was packing and getting ready to fly out all day. I leave for the airport bright and early Monday morning, and the adventure officially begins! It's so weird that it's here. It kind of felt like we'd just be in the MTC for forever. (Gratefully, we weren't!) It was hard saying goodbye to our teachers the past few days. They were amazing and I'm so grateful for them and what they taught me! My Dutch has grown way more than I ever thought possible. Their testimonies and mission experiences have inspired me to continue pushing forward on this path. A few fun stories from this week!! One of my MTC teachers lives in Ohio, and she flew home last weekend. I actually have a friend in Ohio right now on a reassignment. And guess who happened to run into each other?? My teacher said she taught Dutch and my friend connected the dots. So that was

Hallo iedereen!! Het is jouw leiflingse zendeling, Zuster Weaver! It's already my fifth week of MTC... which means I have one more week left!! I'm flying out in 9 days... It's so soon, but at the same time so far away. It'll come soon enough though haha. This week was good! More nederlands leren, more gospel learning. My companion and I taught our second practice MTC lesson in Dutch this week! It went sooooo much better than the first one. We weren't as nervous, and we prepared it in a totally different way. It was way better. Not as good as our English ones have gone, but better than our last Dutch one. This is the worst lesson you'll ever teach in Dutch! It can only go up from here! --- me, to Zus Lay, myself, and my district after we all taught our first dutch lesson. It's STRESSFUL. But hey,  it only goes up from here! This week I'm grateful for grandparents who live close! My wifi was out this morning so I couldn't go to class. I was able to run

Another week in the HMTC!! I got my flight plans this week!! I fly out of SLC Monday, August 2nd at 9:50 AM. It's so weird to think about ACTUALLY leaving haha... I'm so excited though. It's finally becoming real! Washington DC, here I comeeeee. Story about the title haha. Our teachers this week were teaching us colors. We went through the rainbow and a few other colors. Our teacher, Zuster D, tells us "ok, the word for silver is crazy long. Brace yourselves." She then spells out this word for us. We're all kind of like...?? What in the world, Dutch? They had us practice saying it 5 times, then run and tell a family member the word for silver. So we all run and tell a family member this reallyyyyy long word. We get back and continue with the lesson. Towards the end of class, they say "Ok zendelingen (that's dutch for missionaries), we need to tell you something. Silver is actually just ... zilver ." We were OUTRAGED. These are our teachers, we

 Hallo, iedereen! We started learning Dutch on Tuesday. That was ....a shock to my system haha.. It's definitely been a lot harder than it was before. I enjoyed the MTC more in Engels, but I've definitely pushed myself a lot more since starting nederlands. Our teachers speak mostly just in Dutch. I'm kind of surprised at how much I've already learned, after only 5 days of language study. De Gave van Talen is real! We have to ask to use English, which I'm sure any missionary that's learned a language can relate to... SYL, iedereen!! Nederlands is moeilijk, maar het zal worden goed. Hopefully. Zuster Lay en ik try to speak Dutch to each other when we can. It leads to a lot of broken neder-engels, but as long as we can understand each other! ;) The power went out at my house on Wednesday when I was in class. This is the same day I deleted zoom from my phone cuz I never used it anymore... I ended up using my phone as a hotspot for wifi for another phone to use zoom,

 The first full week of Home MTC! I've been getting a lot more used to the schedule, which has been helpful. I've realized what works for me and what doesn't. It's been crazy to realize how much the Lord blesses his missionaries even when they're at home doing Zoom calls. If I'd had to sit through a 3 hour zoom class twice a day for school I would've cried. There's no way I'd have been able to stay awake and focused or  been happy to be there. But not with the HMTC!! There are definitely times when it's harder to pay attention, but I can always get back into it. I'll start class in a bad mood, but 20 minutes in I'll be happier and focused on the lesson. It's pretty amazing, and I'm glad it works so well :) It definitely is the Lord's Zoom.... I've really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with my family, thanks to home MTC haha. There's this cute family in my ward that invited me to go to Hyrum Reservoir with them l

 You guys, Home MTC. That's it. That's all I have to say. Haha just kidding, it's a lot of fun!! Pretty exhausting. But my teachers are super cool! I'm trying to get to know my district more, but there hasn't been a lot of bonding time yet. Hopefully that will come. My comp is the  GREATEST.  She is super cool!! We both love to read and we both were in orchestra growing up, so that's fun! She loves Jane Austen, so we bonded a little over Pride & Prejudice ;) 😂  My cute comp Zuster Lay We've had zoom workshops across the whole MTC with all the new missionaries. Shout out to Vanem Peel and Elder McBride cuz I know you guys and it was fun to see you haha. We have roughly 6 hours of class everyday, plus a one hour workshop some days, and 3 hours of study. I think I clocked about 10 hours of screen time on Thursday... If you're doing HMTC, invest in some blue light blocking glasses. They're nice haha. Also make sure that you find time to exercise, be

 I got my temporary reassignment the other day!! It's the Washington DC South mission!!!! I'll still be learning Dutch, but I'll serve in DC until my mission starts accepting Visas :) My amazing parents! Love my Llama ;) Miracles happen! Mom and I were able to attend a session at the temple this morning, for the first time since COVID hit. It was such a blessing to be back. And to attend the temple my first day as a missionary?? It was amazing!!

Sister Matalyn Kate Weaver Dear Sister Weaver:  You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You have been recommended as one worthy to represent the Lord as a minister of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. You will be an official representative of the Church. As such, you will be expected to maintain the highest standards of conduct and appearance, keep the commandments, and follow the counsel of your mission president. As you devote your time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs, the Lord will bless you with increased knowledge and testimony of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.  Your purpose will be to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. As you serve with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, the Lord will l