Jacob 5:62

I'm never really sure how to start these letters. But I think I will start off with the news from this week. Transfers came. Elder Smith will be leaving to Torremolinos, a city close to Malaga. Coming in his place will be Elder Pesce, from Chile. We are going to work hard. We have a lot of really good people in this area that we have been able to find. We continue to find people. For example, Wilmer. He is a man that we spoke to on the street. He is believing, but doesn't really have any specific desires to become part of a church. Wilmer, during our first appointment, told us that he really doesn't have any desires to join a church. But after the first discussion, he told us that he would like to come to church. Yesterday he came. I love it when an investigator comes to church, because the ward here just takes them under their wing. The ward really has a special gift for loving the people. We will see how he progresses. He is studying with another church right now. But we are hoping he will read from the Book of Mormon.

Mari. She is in the hospital. When we walked into the hospital room to visit her, she set down the Book of Mormon that she had been reading! So good. She is progressing, even though she isn't able to come to church. We are hoping that she is better soon. She has accepted a baptismal date and is really working to change a lot of things in her life. She is a fighter, and is really admirable. She has so many stories about her life, and the things that she has gone through. It's inspiring.

So, in relation to the title. That particular scripture has been going through my mind time and time again this last week. It comes from the allegory of the vineyard found in Jacob 5. The Lord of the vineyard is speaking to his servant, and says to him, "Wherefore, let us go to and labor with our might this last time" It has made me think about the effort that I want to be giving my entire mission. I want to be working with all of my 'might' to be able to bring people to Christ. There's a lot of things to do. So I will make every day of this time that I have a great day to be a missionary.

Love,
Elder Weenig

With Elder Smith

Miracles in Elche

I can't believe how quickly this last week has gone. Things are going really well here in Elche. The members are fantastic. The ward is always so willing to help.

A few miracles from this last week. Yesterday, we left from a member family home evening, and were walking home. We saw this young kid walking down the street towards us, and we decide to stop and ask if he would hear a message. He said it would be alright, so we sat down and gave a quick review of the restoration. He showed a lot of interest, but what I think the real miracle for me was that it was only ten minutes before we had to be back in the apartment. Normally, it's considered by missionaries as a 'dead hour' but fortunately we were still able to meet and find a new person to teach. 

Second miracle came from a member named Carolina. She told us about a friend who would be visiting for a week and who wanted to know basically everything there is to know about the church in that short time. We met with her and I guess the member friend had briefed her on basically everything there is to know. She expressed some doubts, but had a lot of desire to learn. She came to church on Sunday and really enjoyed it. She actually lives close to Barcelona, so we won't be able to see where she ends up in the gospel, but it was cool to be a part of her story.

The third miracle comes from Mari. It's Sunday, and we are waiting in the hall outside of the sacrament meeting room waiting for Mari to arrive. The meeting starts, and I am supposed to be playing piano for the ward, so we go in. We wait the entire meeting and Mari doesn't show. This isn't good, especially when you have just told the ward council how well she is progressing. Anyway, we wait the entire church block with no luck. No answer to our phone calls, and no Mari. We called after church to find out that she was and is very sick. We offer to give her a blessing and she accepts. We took one of the ward members over to her house and after explaining what a blessing is, we gave her a blessing. Now, there wasn't any miraculous healing, she didn't immediately say I am cured, but she said something interesting: "I feel peaceful". I thought it was really interesting because that is the whole purpose of us teaching these people. To help them find peace. She says she is starting to feel better and that this Saturday we will eat paella (typical Spanish dish) with her and her family. Which is usually a good sign of someone being on the up and up.

I really like Elche. It is really, really hot here. We just finished playing soccer, and whew. Exhausting and hot. But, we are hoping to see a lot of growth this week.

It is a great day to be a missionary.

Love,
Elder Weenig

With Elder Smith.
Soccer can be dangerous ....

Las Palmeras

Elche is starting to get very hot. Even though it is only May, the heat is starting to build up. It's pretty crazy to be walking around in Elche. If I didn't know any better, I would say that I was on a desert island or somewhere deep in the Amazon, rather than southern Spain. Elche really is a different world.

The members here are awesome. Yesterday the stake president spoke at our ward. He asked all the missionaries to come and stand in front. He talked about how the calling of a missionary is something divinely inspired, and that we should try and work in greater harmony as members and missionaries. It was a really inspiring talk. Even better when the eating appointments sheet for the elders came around completely full. The members really have a huge desire to share the gospel here. It's really amazing to see how much they have become involved. Especially with investigators.

Mari came to church this last week. She came early, because she had mixed up the time, but she came and sat in the chapel until the meeting started. While she was sitting there, many ward members came up and greeted her, and made her feel welcome. It was really incredible. When we got out of ward council(where we were while she was waiting), she told us that she felt at home here, because of all of the people that were so good to her. She is amazing. She has told us a lot about her desire to join the church. She also gave us a lot of potatoes yesterday after our appointment with her, and we aren't really sure what to do with them. Maybe this will be my chance to develop a very dormant culinary skill and make some mashed potatoes. Anyway, she is progressing really well.

Generally though, the area is improving a lot. We are seeing a lot of growth and a lot of little miracles: Random people on the street that accept an invitation for us to visit them just because they see the name 'Jesus Christ' on our name tags. The copy lady that accepted the baptismal invitation after we had just printed out some copies of teaching records.

There are so many people here. The area, in general,is small, in distance. (Although it has grown a little because of an area that the Sisters have given to us because of it being dangerous). But despite its size, I know that there are a lot of people to be taught. Despite the many, many rejections that we get every day, it makes me think that really, the important thing is to do our part. If we are striving our best to 'call people to repentance' that is really the only job that we have. (Although we still have yet to get on a wall and pull a Dan Jones. See page one of PMG).

Good news from Granada! Jhizel says that she is going to be putting in her mission papers in September! Please keep her in your prayers. She is working hard to be able to go on as soon as she can. I believe the bishop and her are working together to be able to get her out at exactly a year mark from her baptism. I will definitely want to be there to go through the temple with her, and hopefully other new converts.

To refer to the title today, Las Palmeras, it means 'The Palm Trees'. Which is a pretty good sum up of Elche. The entire city is covered in Palm trees. It really is the best. I enjoy serving here.

It really is a great day to be a missionary,

Elder Weenig

This is Paella that some members made us. Delicious, especially when you make it above a fire.

Week One in Elche

It's been a really good week. The best thing ever was to get to speak to you all yesterday.

We actually got to go back to Alicante on Friday. The zone meetings are held there and it was cool to go back and see my old chapel. It was my first time back there since I served there at the beginning of my mission.

This last week in Elche went by really fast. We have been focusing a lot on finding and have seen a lot of success. We were able to find a family just by knocking on a door. We also found a cool new lady from England who really likes Mormons. Best of all, we found a lady, Mari, that is willing to be baptized. We found Mari while contacting in the street. When we talked to her, she told us that she had always seen Mormon missionaries, but had never been stopped by them before. We went to her house on Saturday with our ward mission leader and she accepted the invitation to be baptized. Keep her in your prayers. She has a lot of desires to find out more about the church, and to really be sure about her decision to be baptized. But the great thing about it is that she has decided to meet with us three times a week, which should help her out a lot on her decision.

Elche is a large ward, and we are working a lot with members here. We really are seeing a lot of blessings.  We are working really hard and the ward is giving us a lot of support.

I'm sorry this is really short. I love you all.

It's a great day to be a missionary.

Elder Weenig

Elche

So when people said that there are more palm trees than people, they weren't joking. Elche is full of Palm trees. It's been a pretty crazy week. A really good one though.

My new companion's name is Elder Smith, from Idaho. He is a really good kid, and a hard worker. He has about 7 months in the mission. We are currently in the Elche 1st Ward. The members are fantastic. I am excited to get the work going in Elche. Leaving Granada was difficult. I love Granada, but I am glad that the memories and people there are still going to be there after the mission. It was a great time, and I am very happy to have been there for so long.

Transferring  to Elche was kind of like coming back to where I started my mission. It is very close to Alicante, and so I have already seen members that I knew in Alicante. Pretty crazy, but the weirdest moment of the week was seeing an old companion, Elder Sharp. He was back visiting his old areas, and it turns out he was here the very day I got into Elche. It's been over a year since he went home. It was cool to see him again. This area is pretty different from Granada. We don't have a car, so it's weird getting used to walking everywhere again after having been in a car for over a year. But we are going to see a lot of miracles in this area. We will have to work hard, but I feel that we will baptize here. I have never felt so much pressure in my mission. A lot to do, and not a lot of time to get it all done. So we are going to take advantage of every moment and find those people who are ready.

It really is a great day to be a missionary.

Love
Elder Weenig

With Elder Sharp

First day in Elche