Christmas!

I think hands down, the best part of this last week was getting to talk to my family. You all look so good, and really, it was the BEST Christmas gift ever. I love you all a lot. Really, being in Spain for Christmas puts things into perspective as to why Christmas is so important. Really, being with family on Christmas is the best, so, treasure it while you have the opportunity.

Alicante is good. Things have gotten COLD! Really, really cold. It´s crazy to think that only a month and a half ago, we couldn´t sleep without cranking up the air conditioning to full blast. But it is very, very humidly cold here. 

Christmas here in Spain is pretty similar to the United States. Generally, people celebrate Christmas Eve as a large event, and then they have their large Christmas meal on Christmas day during mediodia. We were invited to eat at a Brazilian family´s home. They are really cool to talk to, because both the mother and the daughter have both served missions. The daughter actually just got back from serving her mission in Madrid, and they give us lots of advice and tell us a lot of very cool stories. We loved spending Christmas Eve with them. We had four other elders come and stay in our piso during Christmas, which was great, because it felt a lot more like having family over for Christmas. 

The rest of this week has been very calm. A lot of people here in Spain take vacations this week, so we have been able to find more people at home, and have been able to teach using the message of Christmas. We use the He is the Gift video a LOT here, because Christmas time doesn´t end for Spain until January 6th, which is the day of the Three Kings. We get to keep sharing the message of Christ's birth up until the first week in January. It´s awesome.

We had a very cool experience yesterday with a man named Antonio. Antonio is investigating the church, and he really, really loves the feeling that he gets when he comes to church, but he wasn´t sure about how he felt joining our church. We read through part of Alma 32, and talked a lot about faith. Alma compares the faith that we need to a seed. We really only need to exercise a tiny particle of faith so that God can bless us. There really isn´t much more to it. Even if we have a difficult time believing that we can believe something, or that our testimony is struggling, we just need to exercise a particle of faith. God doesn´t ask us to do something huge just to get a response. He just asks for us to exercise our faith, no matter how small it is. Our question for Antonio yesterday was how could he show faith in God, how could he exercise his faith. He thought about it for a little while then said, "Praying and reading the book of Mormon, I guess". Which is so true. It may seem small and a Sunday school answer, but what we know is that God works by small and simple means. In a recent conference talk, Elder Bednar describes revelation in two ways: as the sunrise and as a light switch coming on. He says that more often that not, it is the former form of revelation that we receive most often. We learn precept on precept, rather than all at once. Our trials of faith are the small actions that we do to receive revelation. We exercise faith, regardless of how small it may be, and we will see the results. I know in my mission, I´ve had to put my trust in God in a lot of things, from learning the language to going forward even though it is very, very difficult. But, the small actions we do, regardless of how small they may seem, truly do make a difference. They are what make up our ´sunrise´. And if we can learn to trust in him, and if we can learn that God really does respond to our prayers, we can get the responses that we are looking for. If we ask in faith, God will respond. It's a principle that has guided our church since its beginning. The restoration started with someone asking in faith. 

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how much I love you all.Thanks for all that you do for me, I love you all more than I can say. I really, really do. It´s really true that there´s no place like home for the holidays, but I am so glad I am out here. It is amazing, being a missionary.

And really, it´s a great day to be a missionary!

Elder Weenig

The Best Gift

Merry Christmas!

This last week has been AMAZING. For the majority of this week, we have been preparing Rosa, one of our investigators for baptism. She is a very amazing lady, and I think I talked about her a little bit before. She is from Bulgaria, and she has a lot of faith. Because of the language barrier it was very hard for us to communicate our message to her at first, but as time went on, she started reading from the Book of Mormon (in Bulgarian), and she started to really show how much faith and desire to learn that she really does have. Our last lesson with her before her baptism was amazing. She talked about Nephi and building the ship and how he was willing to do what his brothers were not. She really knows and feels that this Gospel is true. The day of her baptism was amazing. Really, a gift just to be there. Her family came out to support her, and she kept telling us how nervous, but excited she was to get baptized. I remember walking down into the fount and realizing how big of a moment this was for her. She was just about to change her life, and completely become a new person. Literally, in a matter of seconds, she was about to become a spiritually reborn person. It was amazing. Unfortunately, her dress was very loose, and I ended up having to baptize her four times before she got completely submerged. She joked about how now, she is EXTRA clean from her previous life, and that I got a lot of practice for my next baptism. She's great. We had our first recent convert lesson with her, and she was telling us about how she felt, when she received the gift of the Holy Ghost after her baptism, that a weight was lifted off of her. She is so much happier now, and has so much confidence in herself and in her faith. It is a miracle, and our own little Christmas miracle that we've gotten to enjoy here in Alicante. 

Also, today we found out who our next mission president and wife will be....drum roll please....DarVel and Marilyn Anderson, from Blackfoot, Idaho! They sound great and still have a while before they get here, because President and Hermana Deere will finish in July. 

We're really excited about this upcoming week, with Christmas! It's very different to see Christmas without the mountains covered in snow, or just no snow in general. It has been pretty cold, which is so different from when I first got here. But we've noticed how great the message of the gospel ties into the message of Christmas. God loved us, so he sent his son, and approximately 1820 years later, he restored his church so that people everywhere can be happy. It's really the same message. God loves us. He wants our happiness and is so willing to make us happy, we just have to be receptive to him. But his son really is the best gift he could ever give us. He really is the best gift. A gift of unconditional love, and unconditional sacrifice. During this time, it's such an opportunity to remember him. Remember what he's done for us and remember why He did what He did. 

This Gospel is amazing. Share it with someone today, because it will really change their life and I know that it will make them happy. That's the purpose of the Gospel, and with God as its founder, it can make every person happy, if they choose to let it into their life. 

Thank you all for all that you do, I love you so, so, so much! 

IT'S A GREAT DAY TO BE A MISSIONARY!

Elder Weenig

Rosa's Baptism,-- Me, Rosa, and Elder Sharp

Rosa's family and friends

The Worth of Souls

This week has been a great experience. It´s really changed my perspective on a lot of things that before the mission I hadn´t even thought about. Before the mission, I had thought a lot about how everyone has their own divine destiny-mission, but I hadn´t really considered what that means. That everyone, EVERYONE, has a divine purpose here on the earth.  For that reason, we need to try and help every single person try and reach that divine potential.

This last week, Rosa fully committed to be baptized this Saturday. Her conversion story is really special to me because she is a completely new person through knowing the Gospel. When we would go over to teach her mother, she would sit in the back of the room, and didn´t interact. She is from Bulgaria, so we figured that she didn´t understand the questions.  One day we decided to start asking her more questions and seeing what she thought about what we were teaching.  When we did, she began to change. She began to respond when we asked questions.  She started to get more engaged. It turned out, she speaks Spanish very well, and only needed a little bit of help to get started.  Her confidence started to grow. When she started to read the Book of Mormon, she changed.  If I could see the before and after personality of Rosa, it would be hard to tell that she is the same person. She has completely changed, and all for the better. The Gospel changes people. She has gotten more confidence through it, and has really started to realize her potential. 

This experience that has really made me think about the worth of souls. In D&C 18:10, it says that the worth of souls is GREAT in the sight of God.  It doesn´t specify which souls are great, and which are not.  It just says that unconditionally, universally, and without anything held back,  God loves all his children and recognizes their divine worth and potential.  For us, that should be motivation enough to want to give them the good news of the gospel.  Maybe it doesn´t even have to be a huge act of kindness.  All it has to be is an act of sincere, loving desire to help someone.  Because once we truly recognize every soul as something precious and as someone unique, we start to see them as our Heavenly Father sees them. 

So go out and makes someone´s day.  Make somebody smile, and try and lift someone.  Small things can make a big difference in the lives of others. 

Anyway, I love you all. Thank you so much for all that you do, and thanks for all of the support that you have given me. 

IT´S A GREAT DAY TO BE A MISSIONARY!

Elder Weenig

An Alicantine Christmas

Merry Christmas! We still have a couple of weeks, but this is by far my favorite time of the year, so I feel like you can never wish somebody a merry Christmas too many times.

I will be spending Christmas in Alicante! I´m pretty happy about that, I will be spending one more transfer here in Alicante with Elder Sharp.

So. Alicante in winter time is COLD. It doesn´t snow, but it will get to where we have to wear coats. It has suddenly dropped from being hot almost 24/7, to being cold. The temperature is actually pretty moderate, but the humidity makes it freezing. We are loving the change. It has been a great week.

Rosa is getting baptized! We were a little worried about her at first, but she has come to church on her own and is getting very excited about her baptism. She is from Bulgaria, and is loving the gospel. Her mom, Mina, got baptized a few months back, and we have been working with Rosa preparing her for baptism. We are very excited. 

Antonio is another investigator that we have been working with. He is pretty amazing, because he contacted us on the street and asked if we could talk a little bit about our religion with him. We have been meeting with him, and he is progressing well. He has met with missionaries before and knows a lot about our church. 

Trinidad is a Spanish lady who was introduced to us by a member. She is very prepared. She is reading the Book of Mormon, and is loving it. She works on Sunday, and when we asked her to come to church, she said that she would ask her boss if she could change the schedule on Sunday so that she would be able to attend. Her boss let her. She is so willing to change her life so that she can learn more about the gospel, and we are very lucky to know her. She asked us to give a blessing to her son, who was having nightmares, and after we had given the blessing, she told us that her son´s nightmares went away. 

Yesterday, we were going over to a Family Home Evening with a woman named Maricarmen in our ward. Usually, it is her, her son, and her son´s friend that are over when we are teaching them. We had planned to show them the ¨He is the Gift¨ video, and talk about the Christmas season. As we got to their door, we heard a LOT of voices inside. As we walked in, we saw a family that we had just barely shown the video two a couple of nights prior, along with other members that we had shown the movie to. Maricarmen had invited over for to listen to us. We realized very quickly we had to share something else. We pulled out a scripture from section 121 of Doctrine and Covenants that talks about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. It talks about the perseverance that we need to have throughout life, because we will pass through problems and trials, and we may not know why. All we really can do, is pray to God that He will deliver us from our situation that we are in. We didn´t realize it until about halfway through the lesson, but that was a perfect theme for the family that was there. The parents have been waiting years to finally get the paperwork to get married, still have to wait for reasons outside of their control. They are such amazing examples of persevering. They haven´t been baptized yet, but will the second the paperwork comes through and they are allowed to finally get married. It was a testimony to me about how God really will fill our mouths, all we have to do is open them.

It´s been a great week. We have a lot to be grateful for. We have been working our hardest. I feel like I´ve worked the hardest I ever have in my entire life. Sometimes I feel like we will never feel fully rested as a missionary. We are ALWAYS doing something. Which is something incredible about the missionary program. Elder Sharp and I were talking about it the other day. We thought that logically, the missionary program shouldn´t work. A bunch of 18-25 year old kids voluntarily going out, living on their own and teaching other people and changing lives. It shouldn´t work, but it does. That´s what is so miraculous about this work. It really is a marvelous work and a wonder. I have a testimony of this work and I am so happy to be doing this with my life right now. It is such an amazing experience. We get to daily see how people change their lives. And I think that the people who change the most are the missionaries, because as we help other come unto Christ, we learn how to do it ourselves. 

I love this! Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers. 

IT¨S A GREAT DAY TO BE A MISSIONARY!

Elder Weenig

 The sunrise from our apartment.

 Made my first tortilla de patatas

My second cousin, Hermana Brown!  Serving in the same mission.

Our thanksgiving dinner as a zone

Filling the Chapel

I love being a missionary. I really, really do. There are times when we are walking and we are tired, hungry, and discouraged, but after we work through those times and we get to appreciate the good times. I love being a missionary, it is one of the best things that I have ever done in my life. We see little miracles daily that make all of the hard work worth it. 

So this last week, we had a week of getting people to Sacrament Meeting. We set our goals, and decided we were going to try and get as many investigators as we could in church. We worked out every way possible that we were going to do it and decided to pray and trust that God would do the rest. Sunday came around and it was raining, hard. I was worried because we were going to pick one of our investigators up to take her to church and was worried she might not come because of the rain. We get to her house and she walked down the stairs with an umbrella and rain boots, completely ready to come to church. Her name is Rosa, and she is awesome. She´s from Bulgaria, and she is getting baptized the twentieth of this month. So we get to the chapel and we are a little disappointed because nobody else had showed up. We sat down up front, and sat through meeting. When we stood up, we saw that two of our investigators had walked in late, Tekki, with her family, and Preston, an investigator from Nigeria. It was amazing. On top of that, Susannah, a less active member that we have been working with to come to church came! She came with her son, Pedrito, who always gives us drawings. It was incredible. 

Henry is a machine. He is another one of our investigators who will be baptized on the twentieth. He is AMAZING: He loves the gospel, and is incredibly prepared. We just got out of a lesson with him, and he is just amazing. 

We had Thanksgiving this week. Thanksgiving is not commonly celebrated in Spain, but we got together as a zone and made our own little Thanksgiving. Elder Sharp and I invited the other Elders over to our piso and we made food as well. (Actually, it was mostly Elder Sharp doing the cooking. I was very impressed, but cannot cook to save my life). It was really fun, but it also gave us time to think about what we are grateful for, and it helped me realize how much we have been blessed. We get two years that we get to spend in Spain and we get to do it in the best way possible. We get to tell people about a message that brings happiness. I cannot think of a better way to spend my time. I love being a missionary. This work is really the best way to find happiness. One of my favorite quotes is ¨The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others¨ (Gandhi). I believe missionary work is exactly that. Losing ourselves in the service of others, and by so doing, finding ourselves and our own testimonies as well.

I love being out here. It is incredible. I know that this church is true and that this is the path that leads to happiness in our lives. It is what brings LASTING happiness for everyone and I am so glad I get to share it with all of my brothers and sisters in Spain. 

IT´S A GREAT DAY TO BE A MISSIONARY!

Elder Weenig

Carpe Diem

I love being a missionary. To be a missionary during this time is one of the greatest blessings we could have. We have such a great opportunity to know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In no other time in history has knowledge like this been available to so many people. I cannot describe how grateful I am to have had it in my life. It is one of the greatest blessings I have, and I have seen it bless so many other lives. I love this work, and I am so grateful I have this opportunity to serve. 

Thanksgiving. Not a thing in Spain, but we as a zone have decided to celebrate it. We are getting together tomorrow to have a big meal and eat as much as we can.  But really, we do have so much to be grateful for in our lives. We get to be in SPAIN. And in Alicante of all places. It is amazing here. 

This last week was great, but it was also difficult in the sense that we lost one of our really good investigators. Antonio, with whom we had a baptismal date, doesn't live in our area or in our ward boundaries, so we gave him to the Elders of the other ward. Tekki, who was going to be baptized last week, was unable to because of problems with her parents. Her baptism has been postponed indefinitely. Which is tough, but I know that after the trials come the blessings. Because this week we set two new baptismal dates with two incredibly prepared investigators, Rosa and Henry. They are AWESOME!!!! Rosa is the daughter of a recent convert named Mina. She, at the beginning of our time teaching them, stuck to the back of the lesson, and generally didn't participate. But now, when we decided to try and start to work with her specifically, she really has turned into a golden investigator. We are so lucky to have her, because she has Mina supporting her, and has a lot of faith. She is from Bulgaria, and has a lot of desires to do what is right. I can't wait to see how she progresses.

Henry is a reference from a member and is the single most prepared person for baptism on the face of the earth. We started talking to him, and he has already been coming to institute at the church for a while now, and loves coming to church. He told us that there, he can feel peace. He also said he loved how no one compels him to be at the chapel, but he feels like he should go. He is awesome. He committed to baptism in the first lesson, and we are definitely going to see miracles with him.

Our mission this last week had the privilege of hearing from Elder Kearon, one of the seventy. While he was here, he talked a lot about how we need to be taking advantage of our lives. How we need to utilize every moment of our missions because we have so little time. And it is so true! How many times a day do we just sit and let moments pass us by? We could be out working miracles in the lives of others, but sometimes we choose to do the easy thing and let opportunities pass us by. We need to 'CARPE DIEM' or 'Seize the Day'. Every day, we need to decide for ourselves that we are going to make this day an effective day, that we are going to take advantage of every moment so that we can progress. Time is so valuable, in fact, I think it is the most valuable resource that we waste. What we need to do is DO! Do something, don't hesitate because you feel too tired or you'll just do it later. If you don't do it now, you never will. I needed that. I know that too often I have let too many moments pass by without utilizing them to the best of my ability. That's also not to say that we need to be going 100 percent all of the time. We need breaks. We need to take a step back and make sure that we aren't burning out. I guess my point is is that we need to be the best we can be. That's what the Gospel is all about. being the best we can be through Christ. And I know that's what he wants for us. He wants us to become perfect, and we can show that we are willing to follow him by trying everyday. While Elder Kearon was here, I had the opportunity to be chosen to have an interview with him. He is an incredible person. When I am older, I want to have that sort of presence. He is really, an incredible person. I learned a lot from him as well. He taught me the importance of how we start our days. If we surrender the morning to the snooze button, we have already lost our first battle of the day. Paraphrase, but that's what one of his key messages was. It was a very amazing experience, and I feel very blessed to have been a part of it. 

I love this Gospel. It is one of the things in my life that can ALWAYS bring me happiness. I cannot even describe to you how much I have been able to learn from this opportunity. I have grown to love the scriptures. They are such a source of power, and combined with prayer, they can and will carry us through trials. God knows us. He knows us individually and knows our infinite worth and divine potential. At times, it may not seem that way. It may seem that we have not worth, and that basically, we are stunted in our progress. But I know that He sees us in a way that we cannot. He sees us for what we can be, the finished product, and that is why he will NEVER give up on us, even when we do.  

I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers. I cannot describe how grateful I am for this experience. It is one that has and will continue to change my life. Anyone who is considering a mission, it is amazing. I would suggest it to anyone who has the desire because it will make you a better person and will make you come closer to our Savior.

IT'S A GREAT DAY TO BE A MISSIONARY!

Elder Weenig

There is somewhat of an fantastic story behind this picture. This is President and Hermana Deere, and the rest of my travel group from the MTC. Funny story. Getting here, we all took a picture at the airport. We were all really happy about it until we noticed one thing: every single one of our cameras had taken a blurry picture. We were all pretty sad, but fortunately, when we all went in to Fuengirola to get Spanish residency, it was President Deere's birthday. We all went out to Subway, and decided to take advantage of the situation and re enact our coming into the airport. The background looks nothing like an airport. And that would be correct. We are in a mall, standing in front of a screen that has a soccer game going on. But hey. We got the picture :)

Alicante is Amazing

This week has been very busy. We have been praying, fasting, and working our hardest to make miracles. It's sometimes a little discouraging when things don't work out the way that you want them to, but one thing that I've learned is that we need to keep going, even though it is difficult. 

I have an awesome companion. Elder Sharp and I get along really well, and I am learning a lot from him. We have worked hard this week to apply a new method of teaching President Deere taught us. We both realized that we rely on the 'talk and tell' method of teaching, which is easier.  We are trying out President Deere's method, the method of observing, listening, discerning, and then teaching which really makes a difference.  We have been able to see the difference in how our investigators respond to how we teach. 

Last week, we had the opportunity to teach with President Deere. It was awesome! We met in our chapel and taught a recent convert and one of our investigators. He taught us to really listen to our investigators and to cater the lesson to their needs. It was a very cool experience. 

Another really cool experience that we had happened in a fruit stand. We walked in and while we were waiting in line, a man asked us if he could talk to us about our religion really quickly because he had seen missionaries like us before. His name is Jaime, and he is very spiritual, and has an amazing relationship with God.  We returned the next day and met his wife, Diana. They both said that they had seen us walk by, and had thought it was a normal for there to be a dark haired companion with a blonde one. They are from Columbia, and they had seen missionaries who apparently look just like us, one with dark hair and the other blonde. We gave them a Book of Mormon and are meeting with them tomorrow, so we are very hopeful that we will be able to teach them more about our church. 

I'm also learning to love seafood, which I would never eat before my mission.  I was on intercambios (exchanges) with my zone leader, and we were visiting this lady to give her a blessing.  We walked into her house and smell of seafood just about caused me to fall over dead. To top things off, she walks in with a fish, cooked, with the head, tail, scales, bones, and all the sweet, sweet goodness of fishiness. Plus, guess what the side dish was? Tomato. My literally least favorite (or used to be, they eat it lots in Spain so I definitely will like it when I come back) vegetable. Yay.  I prayed the entire meal. 

We are working very, very hard. Harder than I have worked in my entire life. It's very difficult being a missionary, but I know that it is very much worth it. We may have to go through a lot of trials, pains, and setbacks before we reach our end goal, but I know that God does prepare a way. It may seem impossible while we are passing through it, but I know that with Him we can do all things. One thing that has been testified to me this past week is that after the trial of our faith come the blessings, and that includes physical, mental, and spiritual. If we are fighting through a problem in our testimony, we only receive a testimony after we have prayed and tried to gain the testimony for ourselves. God answers prayers and is in the details of our lives. 

I love you all, Thank you all for your love and support!

Elder Weenig

I Love Being a Missionary

I love being a missionary. I really, really do. I can´t even express how grateful I am for this opportunity. Every day we get the chance to just go out and talk to people, to tell them about how willing we are to help them through the gospel to improve their lives and we can see it in people´s lives. Spain is amazing. The culture, people and everything here is amazing.

Today, my companion and I made Paella and tortilla de patatas. AMAZING. This food isn´t like anything that I´ve ever tasted, but I love it. Paella is rice, with other ingredients added, generally seafood in Alicante. Alicante actually has hundreds of different distinct forms of Paella. It´s incredible. An awesome member showed us how to make it, as well as tortilla de patatas. Tortilla de patatas is a Spanish tortilla, and is not your regular tortilla that you envision. It is about an inch thick, and is made from eggs and potatoes. It´s something I want to make for the rest of my life.

This past week has been pretty busy. We have a baptism this Saturday, whose name is Tekki. She´s great, she´s ten years old, and has a lot of desire to get baptized. She´s also incredibly smart, she really understood what we taught her, and knows how to apply it in real life, which is more than I would be able to do at ten years old.

This gospel that we are involved in is amazing. I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to be able to a part of this work, because it is literally the best thing that we can do with our lives.

My companion and I are setting up a game plan to make our area grow in a huge way, and we are really excited. We just had interviews with our mission president, who has given us a lot of great ideas on how we can make it grow. We have the opportunity tonight to have President Deere come with us to some appointments that we have with investigators, so he will be giving us a lot of pointers, and I am really excited to see how we can make this area grow and bring lots of God´s children to him.

I love this work. I can personally testify that God is in the details of our lives and that he really wants us to return to live with him and to be happy. I know that by living the Gospel, we can be happy, even though it will be difficult. I know that God will work miracles in our lives, if we only ask. He wants to give us blessings, and will give it to us, if all we do is ask and give him our all and what we do is not a huge part. He just asks us to do our best and when we do, he will provide the way for the rest of everything to come about. 

I love you all so much. I can´t tell you how grateful I am to be out on a mission, and I thank you for your love and support, it really means a lot to me. 

Love,

Elder Weenig

First Transfer

Wow. The weeks fly by out here. We say a lot that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I LOVE being a missionary. Everyday we get to go out and teach the people about how to be happy. How cool is that? We get to constantly try to help people. I love it.

This last week, Elder Flint finished his mission! I´m really proud of him, he was a great missionary and I´m sure that he will keep doing great things when he gets home. My new companion is Elder Sharp, who is a rockstar. He has been out in the mission for about a year and eight months.We have set a goal to work as hard as we can to try and work miracles here in Alicante. We know that the Lord works as hard as we do, so we have set goals to follow the schedule as closely as we can. 

This last week was tough with our investigators. For one reason or another, they couldn´t meet, or weren´t home when we got there. But the best part about it is, is that after difficulties and trials come the blessings! All we can do is consistently do the best that we can, and try and persevere even through extreme difficulty. 

One thing that I have felt in my life more than anything these past few weeks on the mission is the gift of tongues. I have such a testimony of that now. I prayed throughout the MTC and my whole time here to have the ability to speak the language enough to communicate, and I have seen the results. God really does care about us and will help us if we ask in faith. This is what started our church, someone asking for help from God. That is what is different about our religion. We believe in God´s continuing relationship with His children. He is the one that is going to help us in our times of need and the one who is going to always be there when we need help. All we have to do is ask in faith. Just ASK, it is all He wants from us and then he will make up the difference. I know that we are going to need that in order to bring souls to Christ here in Alicante. We really do need him every second, every minute of every hour of every day. We cannot go throughout this life without him.  I know that He lives, and that He loves us. If you ever feel down or need help, kneel and ask, and you will receive.

I love you all! Thank you for all of your support and love, and for this opportunity to be a missionary.

Elder Weenig

Elder Flint´s going home!

Spain is amazing. I am so blessed to be here.

The trainees and trainers. In the mission, your trainer is your mom or dad. The oldest Hermana in your district is your mom (for Elders) and District Leaders are dads (for Hermanas). So here is our happy little district family. 

A Week of Finding

This week has been amazing. A crazy, exhausting week, but we have seen so many miracles this week. This last week our mission had a goal to find new investigators, so my companion and I prayed hard and worked incredibly hard to be able to find new people to teach, which was something we needed. I am just amazed by what we've seen this last week. We received a reference from our Zone Leaders this week to meet with a man named Antonio. Antonio is amazing. In our first lesson with him, we challenged him to be baptized and he accepted. He will be baptized November 22. We are so excited, because that is one week after another one of our investigator's baptism, whose name is Tekki. She is ten years old, and I think I may have mentioned her in one of my previous emails. Both of them are just amazing. But that really was just the beginning of the miracles that we have seen this week.

I think the biggest miracle we had was finding a new family. This family is amazing, and their story that put them in contact with us is even more amazing. They used to live in Pleasant Grove, UT, but moved here because of VISA problems. They live in San Juan Playa, which is in our area, but outside of Alicante, so normally, we would have probably never have had the opportunity to meet them. So, story time about how we come in. We got a text message from the referral system from mormon.org one day, and after having some of our appointments fall through one night, we decided to call them. When we called them, they were so happy, which in itself was a miracle because we never get that reaction on the phone. Then we set up a time to meet with them the next day, and when we went over, we talked for a very long time, and found out that they are some of the coolest people I know. They LOVE Utah. They love the culture and how kind and accepting everyone is there, and when they moved here, they wanted to have the same feeling. They mentioned that they missed the culture of Utah to one of their friends who was visiting them out here in Alicante, and this amazing, heaven sent friend thought, "Well, I know two guys who I am sure will bring the same sort of Spirit." and submitted the reference to mormon.org :)  I've never met this friend, but I am so grateful for him. This family is amazing, we actually just went with them for an activity on p-day and they kept saying that they feel the same spirit that they did as they felt in Utah. Thanks to all of you who set examples for others. I cannot describe to you how big of an impact that it makes, keep it up! You may never know who you can impact, but if you are trying your hardest to follow our Savior, then that is what counts. You will make a difference if you try. That's all it takes. A little bit of effort and you will change lives! 

On Saturday, we had a Halloween party put on by the Sister Training Leaders of our Zone, and it was fantastic. We had so many people attend who got to know the church and were introduced to members of the church. Elder Flint and I ran the donut eating competition which was very, very entertaining.

This week has been great, it is Elder Flint's last, so I will get a new companion this week, whose name is Elder Sharp.

I cannot describe to you how grateful I am to have this opportunity to share the gospel, I love it so much. I really am just sorry that we only have two years to dedicate to the Lord. It really is the best two years because all we do is serve, all day, every day.  I love this opportunity. I know that Christ lives, and that He loves us. Keep it up. If you ever feel alone, remember that Christ is always there to help you through the trials of life, because He has been here before and knows us perfectly and how to help us.

Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers. It means a lot.

Love,

Elder Weenig

Halloween Party

One of the families that came to the party! They are awesome.

My kebaptism. It is pretty intense. Kebap is just this mysterious meat sandwich-tortilla thing that every missionary tries when they come out here.

Alicante

Finding, Finding, Finding

This week has been just incredible. A really busy week, but amazing. We had stake conference yesterday.  This week our mission is having a "Semana de Encontrar," or Finding Week.  Our goal is to find 888 people who have been prepared by the spirit to receive the gospel. We have been trying to find new investigators. Stopping people in the street, asking for references, all sorts of ways just to find more investigators. What we are going to try and do this coming week is find all of the old investigators from former missionaries in our area and get them to start investigating the church again. We went through our entire area book, found every old teaching register and compiled the information into a small little book that we can take out tracking. With all of the futures that we have and all of the old investigators that we are trying to recontact, we will have almost one hundred people to visit this week. We´ve organized it so that we will be able to reach them, but it´s going to be a process. We have been praying like crazy to be able to find those who have been prepared for receive our message.

Already, we have found someone who is just incredibly prepared. Her name is Andrea, and she is a friend of the old Bishop of our ward. We met with her yesterday, and she has already read parts of the Book of Mormon and wants us to help her understand it better. We are very excited to start teaching her, because she is just so incredibly prepared. 

Also, almost seemingly random experiences have given us the ability to meet with people is just putting ourselves out there so that God has the chance to work through us. I know that everything that we do is for a reason, and that God gives us the chance to change lives if we let Him work through us. We were sitting down, taking down numbers for the week when a man just stopped and asked us if he could talk to us about God. We talked for a few minutes and then he asked us if we would be able to stop by his home and there we could exchange ideas about God. We cannot wait to teach him, he is very spiritual and we hope that we can share with him the good news.

I love this opportunity, I love being out here in Spain, I feel so lucky every day to be here in this beautiful country with its beautiful people. 

I know that God loves us. I know that He is in the details of our lives, and even when it feels like we can´t keep going, he picks us up so that we have the strength to keep it up, and I have felt that so much this last week. He helps us keep the faith until the end, and I know that he will help and love anyone who asks for it. Remember how much hope we have in Christ. He is literally the source of every blessing to where we can look for hope and comfort, if we are open to let Him in.

Thank you all so much for your love and support, I hope that everything is going well with you!

Elder Weenig

Elder Fint and I

On our way up to the Castle Santa Barbara

We had a birthday party for Hermana Miller on top.

The Mediterranean Sea

Living the Dream

I love being a missionary. I love being able to talk to people about the church, and being able to just share about my Savior with anyone and everyone that we meet. Opportunities to share to Gospel pop up at random times in random places. Just yesterday, we were walking through a neighborhood where a lot of Gypsies live. We were going to visit an investigator that my companion found a while back. The appointment fell through, and we ended up walking back to the chapel. On our way back, a group of gypsies stopped us and asked us if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. We replied that no, we were Mormon missionaries. They hadn't heard of us, and wondered if we believed in the Bible, which is when we pulled out our Bibles and showed them that we both believed in the same Christ. We then just started talking about what we believed and it was awesome! They have such a great faith in Christ, it's amazing. Towards the end of the conversation, they offered me some marijuana. I just started laughing and said, no thanks. They insisted, and said that after one smoke you would absolutely love it! I said no again and gave them a pass along card and invited them to church. They said it sounds interesting, but that they already were part of an Evangelical congregation. Regardless, they were really great people and I'm glad I got to meet them. 

I honestly cannot tell you how much of a blessing it is to serve a mission. I could sit here and just list all of the things that have happened this week that have made me appreciate the Gospel more than ever, but I want to share some experiences that have really, genuinely changed my life.

Learning Spanish has been hard, especially when you set high expectations for yourself, which has been lesson number one for me: do the best in what you can, and let the Lord do the rest. Don't compare yourself to other people, because you are not in their situation. Do what you can. I know that God factors in degree of difficulty in our lives. He understands how difficult every one of our trials is for us specifically and will give us strength to overcome those that are tailored to make us the best we can be. Sometimes it's tough, and sometimes it feels like God is asking us to do the impossible. But, it makes us such better people when we endure to end, cheerfully submitting to what God has in store for us. 

Another thing that I have learned: everything happens for a reason. EVERYTHING. This last Thursday, Elder Flint and I were out trying to get to our appointments, and literally every appointment/meeting that we had fell through. We kept going from house to house, trying to find at least one person to teach. Finally, we got to the last back up of our back up. We got to the bottom of the stairs in the apartment building we were in and decided to say a prayer, and we just asked God to lead us to someone who needs us. We then decided to go and visit people that were either old investigators or less active members in our area. This is the part where we expected some miraculous finding of someone who had been fervently praying that we stop by, right? Well, actually no. Even after the prayer, we kept knocking, and kept going for another half hour until finally, we found an investigator that my companion had taught previously that we were able to come into her home and teach her a message. I don't know if our visit did make a huge difference in her life, but what I know is that it made a huge difference in mine. God sometimes gives us a challenge, and afterwards, we expect immediate deliverance from the problems that we have. We expect an instant end of the pain- but I know that God knows us perfectly and when the natural man inside of all of us wants our trials and problems to stop He knows that we are supposed to keep going. In Job 23:10 it says, "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." We may not know why we are suffering so badly in the moment, but we can know, through the Gospel, that when we have passed through all of these trials, we will come forth as GOLD. The most precious, most excellent result that can happen to us. 

I know that God lives and is in the details of our lives. I know that He cares about us. He knows our individual struggles. He wants to help us, we just have to let Him in.

Thank you so much for all of your support, letters, and love, it means so much to me to be out here and to have this opportunity.

Love,

Elder Weenig

This is one of the most famous buildings in Alicante, really beautiful, but I have no idea what it's called.

Our zone on p-day. We got to go through an international boat race museum. The race starts in Alicante relatively soon, so we got to have some lunch and talk with the members.

Alicante Castle

I Love Spain

This past week has been amazing. We have been so blessed to hear from the apostles, prophet, and other amazing speakers.   We watched conference in the Chapel.  We could only watch two of the sessions live, and only watched four of the five.  We will watch the last one on Friday. We had zone conference as well this week and our mission president spoke to us. It was amazing.  He talked about how the atonement applies to our lives in so many different ways. It's not only a cleansing power it's an enabling power in our lives. I know that's true. I know that God gives us challenges so that we can learn how to rely on him, and so that we can understand how to overcome and persevere even when it gets tough. Rely on him ESPECIALLY when it gets tough. Coming out to Spain has really opened my eyes on how little we can do by ourselves because we can do absolutely NOTHING without God. We can try, but the only true way to reach our full potential is to lean on him completely. I know that that's what I need in order to bring people to Christ in this area of the world.

The Spanish is coming. I thought I knew Spanish, but I was sorely disillusioned;)

Being a missionary is difficult, but I love being a missionary and I love being able to teach other people the good news that they can become better through Christ. Right now we are trying to find people to teach, and it's been pretty difficult.  Everyone thinks we are Testigos de Jehovah (Jehovah's witnesses).  We have to explain calmly that no, we believe in Jesus Christ being Jehovah, in blood transfusions, and in celebrating birthdays.  Hurray for our friends, the Testigos,  There's a lot of misconception that certain missions are more difficult than others, and that people are more receptive to the Gospel in different places in the world and others are not. This is not true. I know that God is equally as powerful in changing the hearts of his children through his servants in any country or city throughout the whole world. The scriptures tell us this exact thing:  The field is not "brown, plowed and ready to be planted", it is "white and ready to harvest". We are not being sent out to sow seeds, we are being sent out to harvest. We see miracles every day that really testify to me that God will provide a way for us to accomplish his work and bring souls unto Him. 

I love being out here. We have had the opportunity to challenge an investigator to baptism, and while she's unsure, we hope that soon she will be baptized. We are also working with a daughter of a member who has never been baptized but has recently decided that she wants to. She's amazing, and we can't wait for her baptism. 

Remember that we have weaknesses so that they can become strengths. Remember that God didn't send anyone of us here to fail, He sent us here so that we can learn, grow, and become better, even when it's painful. Remember that the Atonement is both a cleansing AND an enabling power. We can use it to become better, and realize who we are supposed to be.

Love you all.

Thank you for your love and support,

Elder Weenig

The Rain in Spain stays mainly in....Alicante

This week has been AMAZING. So amazing. Alicante is a beautiful city, and we have had a crazy busy week. We've been teaching every day, and trying to contact people in the streets. The language is a lot different than from what I've ever learned. The Spanish accent has a slight 'th' for c's and z's, which makes a lot of words hard to understand. But, if you just smile and listen more than you talk, you can generally get a feel for what the conversation is all about. The Spanish food is amazing. The members are great and feed us some of the best food on earth. If you ever get a chance to visit Spain, the Tortilla de Patatas is incredible. 

But this week has been different. We had exchanges with the zone leaders, and I had the opportunity to work in a different area for a day. It was great. Later today, we're actually heading over with the Zone leaders and a member to see the start of an international boat race that starts here in Alicante. We hope it still goes on because there have been a lot of rain here. Way more than usual, because generally, Alicante is a very dry part of Spain, but the past week we have had so much rain, which is a relief, because it cools down the day and makes it a lot easier to be walking around, especially in suits. 

With investigators, it's been a little hard, because we had two baptisms that didn't work out. But, we are going to find new investigators, and keep working until we find those ready to receive the message of the Restoration. That's one thing that I've noticed on my mission is that a lot of the time, your initial plan doesn't work out, and a lot of the time, neither does plan B, C, or D. But we have to keep on trying. And that's what we've been teaching a lot this week is about never giving up or enduring to the end. It's probably one of the hardest principles of the Gospel, never giving up. We have to every day be doing the things that make us better. We have to be constantly asking for help, because we can't reach our potential or what Heavenly Father really wants us to be without His help. If we want His help, we need to ask. That's literally all we need to do: hold on faithfully and ask for help from our Father when we need it and He will answer. He wants to help, but a lot of the times, we are too stubborn and believe that we can do it by ourselves. I know a lot of the times in my life, I've struggled with relying too much on my own strength, and not allowing Christ to step in and help me. 

Thank you all so very much for all of your love and support. I love it out here, it is hard, very, very hard but also very, very rewarding. 

Love,

Elder Weenig

Tracting at night in the rain

And....in the piso (apartment) after rain

 Alicante Castle at night

First Week in Spain

Wow. This is awesome. Really though, I feel so blessed to be here in Spain, it is an amazing country. We left the MTC, and traveling up the Airport was just me, Hermana Garcia and Elder Fillmore. It was sad saying goodbye to Elder Voss, he is such a great guy and will do such great things, but we are actually going to different missions in Spain, he will serve in Madrid.  We got to the airport, got on a plane and flew to NYC. We were hoping to see a bit more of the city, but ended up not being able to, because it was at night, and we didn´t have much time in our layover anyway. It was very cool being there, a few people asked us about the Book of Mormon musical, if we had seen it. We told them that we hadn´t, but we were sure that the book was MUCH better. From NYC, we flew to Paris. That was cool, although we couldn´t leave the airport, we ended up walking around the Chas de Gaulle airport. It is MASSIVE. We had a slight problem where our tickets would not print because of baggage problems, but other than that, it went pretty smoothly. Finally, we got on the plane going to Malaga. On the ride there, all of our travel group fell asleep, we were exhausted because we had been traveling for a really crazy long time (almost 24 hours in total).

We got to Malaga, and met out mission president and wife, President and Hermana Deere, who are pretty much two of the best people I have ever met in my life. Actually, we met them through glass because we were pretty confused on what to do, and then we saw them, and they gave us instructions by typing them on their phone and showing us. We were driven to the mission home, where we found out who our trainers are. They call it the ´sorting ceremony´and we are brought up in front of a map, and then they announce our trainer. Mine will be Elder Flint. He is awesome, this is actually his last transfer, so he knows the mission and how to be a missionary really well, so I am very lucky. We are assigned to the Alicante 2nd ward. we have an awesome view of the Alicante castle right outside our piso (apartment) window. To get here from the mission home was a eight hour bus ride throughout Spain, where we got to see a lot of the countryside and see a lot of new sites. Apparently, olive trees are abundant here- which reminds me a lot of Jacob 5 with the parable of the Lord´s vineyard and His olive trees. I like to think that we are in that parable, laboring alongside God.

It has definitely been a crazy, crazy week, but a great one. With a LOT of miracles. We have been teaching lots of lessons and contacting tons. I have made it a personal goal to try and talk to everyone. It´s difficult, and sometimes you say the wrong thing. For example, I accidentally asked a woman if she was married to the man waiting in line, and she gave me the strangest look and said no and then proceeded to stare at her phone until we left.  Well. The language is definitely coming, slowly but surely.

My companion and an hermana sang at a baptism for a little girl in our ward, and I accompanied. Music is an awesome way to share the gospel.

Also, for those of you who know a missionary´s schedule, you would be interested to know that Spain missionaries in Malaga have a significantly different schedule. We wake up at 7:30, study for an hour and a half, then go out and proselyte. At two, Spain has Mediodia, which is essentially a break during the day to eat or take a nap. We go back to our apartment for a couple of hours, finish studying and have lunch. After mediodia, we proselyte until we go to bed or until we come back at either 10:15 or 10:45, depending on our investigators. We go to bed at 11:30.

Anyway, in total, I am really just so glad to be in Spain and to be able to preach the gospel in this language. I still have yet to master the accent, but I love it and hope I will. Spain is on fire, our ward is giving us references, and we are hoping to get a couple of baptisms this coming Saturday.

Remember how much God loves us, no matter who we are and what we´ve done, He loves us and really does help us get back up when we fall down. He gives us our weaknesses not so that we feel bad about ourselves, but so that we can know how improve and grow in this life. being on a mission has definitely shown me how weak I am, but I know that through Him, our weaknesses can become strengths.

I love this Gospel. Tell everyone about it, Elder Bednar just gave a great talk about Social media sharing the gospel. Do it! And help the missionaries out in your area, have them over for dinner. I can PROMISE you they will appreciate it. :)

Thank you all for your love support and prayers, they mean a lot. I love you all so much and am so glad I have this opportunity to be out here, because I know this is what I am supposed to be doing, and I want to challenge every to be a missionary even if you aren´t using words. Just be an example in everything that you do.

Love,

Elder Weenig

Travel group -- Me, Elder Fillmore, and Hermana Garcia 

Chas de Gaulle airport

A window pic of Spain

My trainer, Elder Flint, and I.  Assigned to serve in the Alicante 2nd ward

Last Week at the MTC

Wow. This past week has been insane. And full of miracles. On Thursday, I auditioned to sing at one of the firesides that we have at the MTC. I had some sheet music left over of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" from when I accompanied some of the members of my zone. This time though, I was doing a vocal solo. It was crazy. I auditioned in front of the MTC presidency's wives, and when I finished, the MTC president's wife came up to me and said, "You are in our yes pile, and we will try to get you a performance. But first, a HAIRCUT." My companion and I had actually scheduled one for the next day, so it wasn't a problem. Anyway, the performance that I got scheduled for was on Sunday for one of the Farewell Devotionals. It was crazy! Getting that notification was incredible, because the sister accompanying me, Hermana Leonard, ran up and said, "Elder Weenig! We made it! We are performing!" It was great! But as the performance got closer, I started to get more and more worried, because I had an awful cough that would not go away. My friend here, his dad is CEO of Doterra and gave me some cough medicine oils (which helped a lot), had some cough medicine, and consumed an entire package of cough drops, but after all that I still had a pretty bad cough. Just before the performance, I prayed, asking just to be able to perform at my best. I was really nervous, but was able to sing. God really does answer prayers, I was able to do my best, and I really owe it all to Him. 

Along with the notification that we would be performing, I got another great notification: my VISA has come through! YES! I met with the consulate on Monday, and got to meet with a lot of missionaries heading to Malaga. I cannot wait, it will be awesome. We leave Monday and fly to NYC for a layover, and then onto Paris. We wait in Paris for about three hours before going to MALAGA! I honestly cannot believe it came through. My travel group only consists of three people: a hermana, me, and Elder Fillmore, the other missionary who came with me to the airport. We are really excited to finally get to Spain. And have double checked that we won't be turned back once we get to the airport. :) 

Crazy, crazy week. But awesome. We have been getting ready to head out. We've gotten to teach over Skype, which actually was amazing. Our investigator couldn't do it during the assigned time, so we had to come back after all of our district had finished. So fun- I love teaching. We actually had a really cool experience waiting for the bus to take us from Main Campus back to West Campus. I saw a man sitting on the bench nearby us and kept having this prompting to go and talk to him. I waited for a little while, but then funnily enough, the second I started to talk to him, one of my friends in my district started at the same time. We talked with him for a few minutes, about how he was doing, and eventually started talking about the church. He is a Protestant, and is from NYC. I wanted to give him a Book of Mormon, but when I asked, he said he already had one. Our bus started to pull up right about then, so I told him that the Book of Mormon was amazing and that he should definitely read it. I don't know if he will take it to heart, but it is all about planting seeds. Hopefully sometime in the future, he will read it. On the bus, we were really excited about it, because it was our first time ever talking to someone we for sure knew was a potential investigator. It was great. :)

Anyway, the MTC is hard. Crazy awesome, but still very hard. The Spanish is coming along great- my companion and I start laughing sometimes when we mix up languages. It is such a great experience. BUT I cannot wait to have real food. And I cannot wait to get to Spain. I already have fallen in love with the country, just from hearing about it. I cannot wait to get over there and to get started telling everyone and everything about the Gospel. 

Anyway, I hope everything is going great with you all, remember that God really does care about and wants to hear from each of us, no matter how silly or ridiculous the problem may seem. He wants to help us! And I think that that is one of the best messages we can give, is that we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants to help us. 

Thank you all for all of the love, support, and letters. 

Love, Elder Weenig

Spain MALAGA missionaries. My travel groups is the Hermana on the far left, me, and the elder on the right. The other two Hermanas haven't entered the MTC yet, they will be going to the Madrid MTC.

Our District

Elders Lavery and Stirling. Two of the best missionaries I know.

The zone leaders with the Sister Training Leaders. We tried to take a serious picture and it didn't really work out. :)

Brother Rasmussen (my teacher)

West campus missionaries that are leaving on Monday for Spain.