First Week of February

Happy February everyone. I can't believe how fast January went. With the end of January, comes the end of the transfer as well. Unfortunately, Elder Black is being transferred. We've been lucky, we had almost three transfers together which is unusually long for a companionship in our mission. It's been great, and I've learned a lot from him. Interestingly enough, Mom and Dad you have already met my new companion. Do you remember when we Skyped? The elder that spoke to dad in Finnish? He will be my new companion. Elder Ylimaula from Helsinki, Finland. He's a hard worker and I am excited to work with him.

I really don't know where to begin when I talk about these weeks. They go by so quickly. Too quickly. I would be happy just to stay here and never leave. Things are going very well in our area. Jhizel is doing very well. Every time we meet with her, she brings someone to learn about the gospel. She is incredible. She tells us a lot about her desire to serve a mission, and actually plans to leave at her year mark in the church. Before then, she has the desire to get her whole family baptized. She really is converted. Eduardo is still there. He is going slowly, but surely. He definitely has the desire, but we've still got some things to work on. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Jose Juan and Sandra are amazing. They both were at church yesterday and Jose Juan is progressing very well. He wants to get baptized before Sandra goes back to Chile for a few months. So keep him in your prayers. He has a lot of potential to help this ward out. We are praying that he will be able to gain a testimony of the church so he can be baptized.  Honestly, this last week, a lot of new people have started to show a lot of potential. Manuel and Maritrini are a Spanish couple that are two of the nicest people whom I have met. Maritrini is a member, Manuel is not. Manuel would have been baptized, but he has a doubt that he expressed to us. It has been a long time since they have met with missionaries, so we are hoping to see a lot of progress with them. Maritrini, whom I haven't seen come to church since I've been here, came to church yesterday. It was a miracle. Manuel couldn't go, but it's progress and we are hoping that little by little we will see success with these two.

We have been very busy. The members here are incredible. The bishop invited a friend to take an English classes from us. The members that we took to an appointment tried desperately to get our investigator to commit to a baptismal date, and we have one of the members working with us to reactivate a young mother and baptize her son. I love this ward. They are like a second family, and I feel really blessed to be able to work here.

Cool experience for the week. One day, we had a lot of set plans that failed us. We were pretty discouraged, and we were set on heading back to the car. We were on our way there, when we saw a woman walking towards us. We decided to contact her, and to be honest, I didn´t have a lot of faith (usually the response is that they are too busy). But when we started to talk to her, she gave us her number and told us to come by tonight... so we will see how that goes.

One thing that has been on my mind a lot is how we use the time that we have. I think a lot of it comes from the fact that I feel like time goes by way too fast. I cannot believe that I have been in Granada for over four months, it really feels like I just barely got here. But we have seen a lot of miracles. I would genuinely say that they have been miracles. I have been writing Nelly, the lady that was baptized only a few months ago. She has a very strong testimony and a strong desire to come back to Spain -- this amazes me. Every time we visit Jhizel -- it amazes me. This is the Lord's work and He provides a way. It doesn't seem possible that two teenage boys can convince people to change their lives, drop coffee and tea (and sometimes a wineglass or two), get dressed in white and then get dunked in a font. It doesn´t make sense. But that´s what I´m learning. A lot of times in life, we see things that don´t make sense. It makes me think of the scripture in Isaiah 55, ¨..my ways are higher than your ways´ And that gives me a lot of comfort to know that. That his ways are a lot higher than my ways. I think that is why this work continues to go forward. Because we really don´t convince people to change their lives, and be baptized. Not if we want them to be converts. That´s why we have the Spirit. It´s just a perfect system. I really am so glad to be a part of it. It makes me really think that today is a great day to be a missionary.

Love,

Elder Weenig

This is the closest we will ever get to swimming on our missions. (It was downpouring one day in Santa Fe)