Vive España: 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