Vive España: Transfers and Tithing

So I´m not really sure what is the best way to describe this past week. Transfer weeks are unique. Little sleep, a lot of phone calls, and your ability to improvise gets stretched to the maximum. But when you end the day on Thursday, you feel like the world gets a little bit lighter. Also, eating Mexican food with President and Hermana Andersen after the transfer for breakfast is nice. This was President Andersen´s first time doing the full transfer, so it was really cool to see the differences between the way President Andersen does things and the way President Deere did them. My companion and I are staying together for another transfer, but from the looks of things, I will be training a new office elder soon. Generally, about halfway through the transfer the new office elder will come in. It´s crazy how quickly time goes, I still feel like I just got here.

Transfers are crazy. But I want to share a miracle that happened. Do you remember me telling you about the pair of sister training leaders that would be taking our car to the far side of the mission? We brought down the sister who would be driving on Tuesday night so that she could be trained in how to drive and what to do as a missionary driver. Anyway, everything went well, and we watched them drive away the next day having given them instructions to call us periodically throughout their journey to Cartagena (the city to which they were going) and especially to give us a call when they got there. Well, I had been expecting a call at the latest at 8 o clock, but what with transfers being crazy, I lost track of time, and before I knew it, it was 10 o clock, and we still had not heard anything from them. Now, to kind of explain the panic that I felt would be hard, because it´s a special circumstance. The sisters did not have a phone, and were driving to one of the farthest points in the mission. They could have been anywhere. Anyway, President Andersen and I started talking about possible solutions, and it took us about thirty seconds to realize we literally only had one option: to pray. So, I started praying as we drove back from an appointment, and President Andersen asked all of the missionaries that would be departing the next day to get down and pray. Not two minutes later, we got call from a pay phone telling us that the sisters were in Cartagena and were just looking for the chapel. It´s amazing to see how God works here in the mission field. It really is a blessing to see how much He influences and effects what we do.

In terms of proselyting efforts, we really did not have much time to be out proselyting this last week. In order for transfers to work, we have to be ready to jump in to fix any problem. But God really is preparing opportunities for us to go and teach his children. We were able to meet with Martins and his family on Thursday. We had planned to teach the law of tithing, focusing on the faith that is required of each of us to pay on honest tithe. We read the introduction to Ether 12, which talks about faith and about weaknesses becoming strengths. Martins read through the heading, reread it and then looked at us very confused. He told us that he did not understand why God would give men weaknesses. We then talked about how God gives each of us difficulties and imperfections so that we can become better people. When we said that, he thought about it for a second and then told us that that was exactly what he needed to hear. He told us that whenever we come, it is exactly what he needs to hear. :) The gospel is perfect. We ended up teaching him about the law of tithing, and he started laughing. When we asked him what for, he told us to wait. He then went into his back room and brought out a little booklet which showed exactly how much tithing he had been paying to his other church. He can´t wait to start paying tithing. Wow. Just...wow. They will be baptized next week on Saturday.

I love my mission. I just can´t describe how grateful I am to be serving here in Fuen. Just to be a missionary. I just love it. I want to stay an extra year, if that is alright? I know one day I will have to go, and it hits me especially hard when we take missionaries to the airport, that I will have to go, too. That´s why I want to make everyday a great day to be a missionary.

Love you,

Elder Weenig

This is a pretty great picture. If you remember, my companion before
coming into that office was Elder Holman. Well, we had the trainers
come in this last week to pick up trainees, and he is training. So
there I am, the grand-trainer, Elder Holman the trainer, and Elder
Berry, the trainee. It's also worthy to note that I am the shortest in
this picture. I guess my age is catching up with me. :)