Residency in Málaga

I don´t know if you know this, but residency is in the Bible. So yes, when people ask if my job has a spiritual side, I will now direct them to Luke 2:1-5. I have been developing a secondary missionary purpose here: helping others follow the example of Mary and Joseph and getting them registered in their own city (or here in Fuengirola depending on the local governments willingness to work with us). I bring that up because that has been the major focus of this last week. Thursday and Friday, two representatives from Madrid came down to do a presentation and also a residency inspection of Málaga. One of them was a native from Madrid and the other from Brazil. I´m not going to lie, I love being able to have a somewhat trilingual conversation and yet everyone understands. Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, and I have found that I can understand the majority of what Portuguese people say. Anyway, with the meeting conducted mostly in English and Spanish (with the occasional slip into Portuguese), we were able to talk about the status of residency in Spain and fortunately things are going well here in Málaga. Which is a relief, because there has been a lot of changes in the residency process in Fuengirola so it´s been pretty difficult, but I guess it turned out okay. Also, they took us out for Chinese food afterwards. Which was nice. I think it took me coming to Spain for me to develop a love for Asian food. But, I still don´t think I will be able to stomach Panda Express.

It was decided that next week would be a better week for Martins and his family to be baptized. I´m really excited for them. Yesterday, Martins was telling us that he felt like he had been prepared to get baptized in this church because no other church ever felt right. I love them a lot. They are just great. They feed us Fufu to ´Make us strong!´ They are the best.

Last week we were drove out to Estepona (a city that is in our area) with our ward mission leader. He returned from his mission only a few months ago, and is an absolute example of what a returned missionary should be. I want to be like him. Anyway, on our way, we visited a recent convert to the church who can´t come to church very often because she lives so far away. It turns out her boyfriend was there, who returned from his mission a year ago, and was visiting her for the week. It was pretty cool to get to teach with two returned missionaries. They both talked about how much they loved their missions, and it made me think about how big of an impact my mission has had on me.

I´m sorry about how short this is, but I want you all to know how much I love you all. I love Spain. I am also really grateful that winter is coming and the Costa del Sol is starting to cool off :).

I´m just glad that everyday is a great day to be a missionary.

Love you,

Elder Weenig

Hahaha I'm going to have to explain this.
 This is an African dish called fufu.
It is literally a ball of dough that you rip off with your hands and
dunk in a stew of meat and sauces. I can hear the instructor from
"Manners for Missionaries" video shuddering.

Some HUGE butterflies we found in a butterfly park

Quick shot of Fuengirola Castle.