Stand Strong!: Trust in the Lord With All Your Heart

Hola mi Familia!!!! My loves!! how in the mundo are you!?! I love you all so much, did you know that? I can't thank you enough for the amazing support and love that you have shown to me over the past few weeks. It means the absolute world to me.

I LOVE being a missionary. Trust. I am learning trust. Trust in the Lord, He knows so much more about how I can help these people than I do. And when we trust Him, He always shows us a better way. I have been reminded over and over and over again what an opportunity it is to serve my and your Heavenly Father for this short amount of time that I get to do His work 24'7. TIME is flying and I feel like there is SO much work to do in such little time. I have been in Brigham City for a transfer and transfers are tomorrow....and....I am STAYING in Brigham City! I am so excited. I love the people and this area so much, and there is so much work that needs to be done, and I can't wait to keep going. I am a little nervous though because I have only been a missionary for a couple months now, and they are having me be the senior companion/helping train a "Greeny!" I am so excited. She is also waiting for her VISA to go to Argentina, and I am already learning so much from her. My new companion's name is Hermana Schiess. She is from Kaysville, UT. She doesn't know much Spanish, so I am also "trying" to help teach her Spanish (hahaha...but my Spanish isn't even that good yet....so hopefully she learns from the Natives more than me!). My trainer Hermana Murillo, will be staying in this same area and in the same apartment, but she will be getting one of the brand new sister missionaries from the MTC--so we will be in different companionship's, but same house. She has been an incredible companion, and I learned a lot from her. I will miss her dearly.

Questions about VISA--I could have my VISA tomorrow or in 6 months. It kind of just depends. They say about average wait time is 2 months, which is totally fine by me---because I LOVE IT HERE. And every person on earth is a child of God and I know that this is where the Lord needs me right now....even if I am in Utah. My companions and I have been striving to ONLY speak Spanish, and now I can't speak English and I am combining Spanish and English so often that I officially think "Spanglish" should be a language. I don't know what is happening, but the Lord is helping me learn Spanish! Even though I am still not totally fluent, with His help--I can speak a lot more. But still, I have a LONG ways to go. :) Good thing too, because I am pretty sure Spanish will be the language they speak everywhere one day. I love the Spanish language.

We have a lot of new investigators! I am so so so SO excited. We have been working really hard to find through members, non-members and other investigators. I never knew the value of what it says in Preach My Gospel "Find when you teach, teach when you find." It is so true. We are starting to see a HUGE change in the amount of lessons we get in per day because we are focusing all of our energy on teaching/sharing the restored gospel message with everyone the Lord puts in our paths. As a missionary we plan for the next day every single night. I have never the realized the power of planning until now. When we pray for the Lord to help us to accomplish every goal, and every plan we set, it is amazing to see how the next day unfolds and we are lead and guided to the places and people that we need to be in order to reach those goals and plans.

Dalila and Cintia

I feel like I say this every week...but I keep seeing MIRACLE after MIRACLE! It is incredible. Let me tell you about this Sunday. The Lord Is helping us so much, and I can't even begin to thank Him, nor acknowledge every single moment that we get to see the Lord's hand in our lives--there are just too many! I try to write them down, but we are running from place to place sometimes I don't have time! But anyways....back to this Sunday. Let me first start off with my new best friend Cintia and Delila Delacruz. They were a referral that we received from some other elders in our zone. We met her (Cintia, the mom to Delila) and she had no idea what a Mormon was or what the LDS church was. She just moved from Washington. She has had a life full of child abuse, divorce and is now living with her boyfriend from Mexico. My companions and I refer to her as our second mom because she has been a huge example and done so much service for us as missionaries. We have taught her the first three lessons of Preach my Gospel and have extended for baptism a LOT of times. She says that she isn't sure yet, and wants to learn more. We have been trying to get her to come to church for weeks, but she says that she always has other plans. But this Sunday....SHE CAME! With Dalila, her sweet 5 year-old-daughter! I was so excited--yes, I cried! She came to ALL three hours and said that she loved it. She says that she is learning so much, and can't wait to learn more! I am so excited for her.

BUT if that wasn't enough ANOTHER family (The Rodreguiezs, and their two kids) came to church as well!!! We have been teaching them for about 6 weeks now, and they will never come to church. We finally made a break through when we showed them how the Book of Mormon can help their family to be happy. The Sunday after that they were in church!!!! AMAZING. They said that they are ready to be baptized, but they have some legal issues that we are trying to work out before that happens...but with the Lord nothing is impossible, so hopefully for them that will be SO SOON! :) They are such a cool family, and are striving in every way with everything they can to keep all the commandments. It isn't easy for them, but they are doing it. Just like for us right---life is NEVER easy. But it is ALWAYS worth it, if we are giving our best.

And THAT IS NOT ALL!! Yet ANOTHER family (The Hernandezs family of 6) are recent converts and haven't been going to church forever---but THEY CAME!!!! The mom and the dad are so inspiring. In fact, amazing. They live in a trailer park. Both their parents left them when they were young and put them in detention centers to be raised. They have been in and out of jail their entire lives and then she had a baby. They both decided to turn their lives around. Then they found the church, and know they tell us all they want is for "all their kids to be missionaries someday." Isn't that AMAZING!!!!?!?!?! THE GOSPEL CHANGES PEOPLE. AND IT IS NEVER EVER EVER EVER too late to change and repent and turn your act around. Their they were---despite they both don't have a job, they live in a trailer and hardly have food to eat. They were shining. It is because they know what is MOST important in life. Isn't that CRAZY! What is most important in life often gets through off to the side, yet, this family hardly has food and they still made an effort to be there for church. It made me question myself....what really IS the most important things in our lives? and how many times have I gotten distracted by lesser important things?.....All the time. Our families CENTERED upon Jesus Christ is BY FAR the most important thing. I hope you never let that go for something that seems to be more important at the time.

So you can imagine our branch president's face as we walked into church this Sunday. haha it was classic. Our branch probably has a total of 30 people that attend and here we come in walking in with 10 BRAND new people for the branch!! AMAZING. THE WORK IS ROLLING FORTH! And it isn't us, it is the Lord. He has prepared so many people, and I am just grateful that I get to be apart of their journey in finding their way back to our Savior Jesus Christ. I just pray and pray that they continue on that path.

I have a new obsession. Brigham City people and Baptism. is that weird? Whenever we meet a new person or investigator, no matter how scary or crazy they might look, I see them standing in the font dressed all in white. I can't help it. I just want everyone to be able to get back to our Father in Heaven SO bad!!!! And I know that Baptism is the first step in following the example of our amazing Savior Jesus Christ. I love it. Our zone this transfer had like 16 baptisms and seeing these people take that leap of faith and seeing these people change their lives by following Jesus Christ has motivated me to be better. Man, sometimes I feel like THEY are the Teacher and I am the student. I am learning SO much from these people. They are incredible. Jesus Christ is my best friend and YOUR best friend. He has made the path easy for us...but knows it won't be easy because we aren't perfect people. But guess what? He is ALWAYS there holding our hands....if we let Him. He will guide us to be everything and MORE than we ever dreamed we could be.

We get to do a lot of service as missionaries. I love it so much. Service has opened up SO many doors for us. We will show up in our work clothes and say "We are here to clean, where do we start?" and we work. Then we teach. I am learning more and more as a missionary and as a future mom that it is SO SO SO important to LOVE the people before you teach the people. And the best way to come to love someone is by doing service for them. I love it. I love serving. and It is so true. The more you serve (I have especially seen this with companions) the more you love them. The more you love them, the more willing they are to listen to the message that you have to share. That is one thing I am learning. Love is central to God's plan, without it, we are nothing. I have also learned that life is way to short not to think and serve others. We only have so much time on this earth to grow and develop. and "the best way to find yourself is to loose yourself," right? SO......loose yourself in service and you will find a much better you. That is what I am trying to do now too! Hopefully it works, because I am so far from perfect.

Anyways, the work is rolling forward and I am so excited to be here in Brigham City for another transfer! I am taking a leap of faith, and trusting in the Lord with all that I have got. Because----I am nothing. I am weak. I am His servant. And because of that, I trust Him. I need Him to help me become the person I need to be. And I trust Him with all my heart to take me there.....even if I feel like I am walking in the dark a lot.

I LOVE YOU GUYS ALL SO MUCH! I am so impressed with everyone and so proud of all the amazing work YOU are doing. I challenge you this week to think about being a member missionary. PRAY to have missionary experiences, and I promise you that the Lord will bless you with people to talk to and teach. And you never know who is watching your example. So, keep up the good work and always look to whom you can serve. I LOOK UP TO ALL OF YOU SO MUCH! YOU ARE MY HEROES!

STAND STRONG.

Love,

Hermana Weenig