Monday, July 27, 2015

Finding People

So apparently people were not lying when they said that southern Spain is the hottest part of Europe. Really though, there have been times where I feel like we are just walking into a hot tub by walking out of our apartment. It´s very humid, and very, very, very hot. Fortunately, the senior couple that serves in the office with us has let us borrow some of their fans. I have really come to appreciate air conditioning.

This last week has been great. We have been really blessed to see a lot of miracles. Manolo´s doing so well. Really, really well actually. He paid tithing for the first time this last Sunday, but unfortunately, some missionaries (us) had forgotten to turn in his baptism register. Which is actually really saying something because normally you have to mail it into the office, whereas we just have to go next door. Whoops. But good news, we were able to get his information plugged in so now he is technically a member. But he is such a good guy. Really loves coming to church and is doing really well. We are hoping to be able to get him a calling soon. 

This last week our zone had a goal to find, and we were really wanting to meet a lot of new people because although we have been in Fuengirola for a few weeks, we still want to grow our teaching pool a lot. So we have been able to see a lot of cool blessings:

First, would probably be Liseth. She is a thirteen year old Colombian girl. We found her name in the area book that we received and went to go and meet her. We rang her door bell and out runs Liseth. Now I will be honest, when I was reading the information about her, I had thought that she was in her mid 50s (I had forgotten to look at her age). But there is definitely a reason that she seems so much older. She is an impressive little thirteen year old. She takes care of her little siblings because her mom is not around very much. I think that´s one of my favorite things about being a missionary. I get to see so many just amazing people that overcome seemingly insurmountable difficulties and still manage to live normal lives. It´s inspiring, really. Anyway, Liseth comes out and only five minutes later another thirteen year old, a member named Cesar walks out of the building. He smiles and asks, ´Are you going to teach Liseth´ We told him that we were going to, and he asked to join us. I was impressed. I mean, both of them were not even old enough to be entering high school, but they both answered questions about the Book of Mormon and prayer that I definitely know where beyond my capacity when I was that age. It was a really cool experience. We asked Liseth to be baptized and she surprised us when she said, Yes, I really would like to. When we asked about a specific date, she told us that the only problem is that her mother does not approve of her getting baptized. So we are going to pray really hard for her and her mom.

About a week ago, we were walking down the main street in Fuengirola, and we contacted this young Spanish guy, about 25 years old. We started talking to him, and I asked him if we could share a message with him. He shrugged and said that he wasn´t doing anything right then, and that we could definitely share a spiritual thought with him right then. So, right in front of the Cultural Center of Fuengirola, we sat down on a bench and taught the message of the Restoration. I love teaching the Restoration, because it really brings the Spirit really easily. Anyway, we had a great lesson with him, and we really wanted to be able to teach him again, so we asked for his information. He said that he could not give out any personal information, but that he would call us. Now, this is what we call a ´Best Two Years´ moment, where on the outside you´ve got the Elder Calhoun ´He said he´d call´ when in reality, you feel like it´s time to start finding someone else. But he did promise us that if he could, he would come to church. Anyway, we drive up to the church to see him waiting outside. It was AWESOME. One of the best feelings that we can have on the mission is the feeling when your investigator fulfills a commitment. Anyway, this guy stayed for the entire block and when we got to the end, he told me that he had really enjoyed it. I was impressed as well, because he sang along with the congregation, even though it was his first time in church. Unfortunately, he still did not give us any contact information, but we are going to keep praying for him. He took a Book of Mormon and said that he would read it. I believe him. I really hope that we see him again at church.

Another really cool miracle actually came from mormon.org. We got a reference for a man named Martins from Nigeria. We had tried to call him and set up an appointment with him, but we hadn´t been able to. And then, out of the blue, we are walking down the street and this man contacts us. It turns out that he was Martin. He invited us to his house, and gave us his phone number. When we got there, he and his wife and daughter were there. We had a really great lesson with them, and when we asked them to come to church, Martins told us that he would love to come, but unfortunately, the chapel was too far away, and they could not make it every week. He told us that we wanted to get baptized, and that he was very willing to come to church if there was a way to get there. He turned to his wife and said, ¨Do you want to get baptized?¨ She looked at us and asked, ¨Well, I was baptized when I was 12 years old, can you people baptize me again?¨ We smiled and assured her that she could definitely be baptized again. Now, it´s just the problem of getting them to church. It´s not nearly as far away as La Línea, so we´ve just got to come up with a miracle solution to get them there. I´m sure we´ll be able to, we have just got to wait and be patient.

Lots of miracles. We don´t have very much time to proselyte, but God is blessing us with people that are prepared regardless. One thing that I have learned this week is that what we want is often different from what God wants. We only get to see the miracles when we submit our will to His. He has given us everything and controls everything except one thing: our will. As we give that over to Him, sacrifice the one thing that He cannot take from us, we begin to see the miracles. Which really makes it a great day to be a missionary :)

I love you all,

Elder Weenig

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