About a month and a half ago, I was talking with the Milan, Italy secretary. We both talked about the missions that we were in, and the differences between them. It was pretty cool to see how similar but also how different our missions are. One thing that he told me that has stuck with me as I have been in the office. He said, ¨Even though we don´t get very much time to proselyte, and maybe it´s because of that, we get a lot of miracles.¨ And you know what? The Spain Málaga Mission office has started to see them as well.
Manolo. I love this guy. He asked us if we needed to wear ties to church. (Beforehand, he had just worn a white collared shirt.) When we said no, it was not absolutely necessary, he asked, ´Well, then why does everyone else do it? I want to do what we are supposed to in this church.´ Good point, Manolo. Anyway, the next Sunday he came in, for the first time, with a tie. :)
Martins and family. You remember that man that I talked about last time? He is awesome. Really, he apparently put his name on mormon.org so that we would come and visit him. Anyway, he is from Nigeria, and has his wife and daughter living here. They are some of the most receptive people that I have met, and they want to come to church. They speak English, so we have been able to work with the International Branch. Our branch president, who coincidentally is from Zimbabwe, has been able to come with us to appointments as well as volunteering to bring them to church. :) I love the members here. Anyway, we had a lesson with them yesterday, where we watched the video of the Restoration, and as soon as we finished, Martins looked over and said that he felt ready to be baptized. He told us that he really liked the way that we worshiped and that he had been searching for a church like ours for a long time. I mean....I´m just saying, that is a pretty awesome miracle. Anyway, he has committed to coming to church with his wife and child, who both want to get baptized. This will be huge for the branch. We´re very small in numbers, (only about 15-20 every week), and so to get a new family would be something huge for them.
Liseth. She is a pretty awesome girl. We were worried for a little while, because we were unable to put ourselves in contact with her for a while. We had just knocked her door and were walking away, really thinking that we had completely last contact with her, when we heard the sound of feet running up behind us, and we saw Liseth running up after us. She told us that we could come by sometime next week. Turns out there is a member family that lives right next door, and they are willing to have a family night or something with Liseth. Just keep praying. We´re hoping to see more miracles with her soon.
We found an old teaching record of a less active lady named Maria. We did not know who she was, but we wanted to be able to find her. When we knocked on her door, she smiled and said ´the missionaries´! Which is a nice change. I mean, as fun as explaining who we are is, it´s great to meet someone who knows who we are and why we are there. Anyway, we talked with her in her door, and she told us that she knows the church is true, but just doesn´t know if she´ll be able to get enough desires to come back to church. It´s hard to see someone say that, so we decided to convince her to come back to church. She is a great lady, and we really are hoping that she decides to come.
We are seeing a lot of miracles. A lot of the time, they are really small. But by ´small and simple things, great things are brought to pass´ and that is what I´m praying for and hoping for in these next few weeks. That even though we don´t have a lot of time to proselyte, the small little things that we do, the small acts of obedience and hard work will eventually yield great results.
I love being here. Being in the office has taught me two big principles: never give up, even when the circumstances surrounding you seem impossible. Second, related concept, if we give all that we can, God will make what has seemed impossible become possible. That´s what we get to see every day here. Which makes every day a great day to be a missionary.
I love you all,
Elder Weenig
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