January 11 and January 18, 2016: Wedding Bells and Sleep Deprivation

   Another good week out here in Ebeye. One of our investigators Diosi and Lupe got married Saturday and one the sister's investigators in our ward got baptized. I may be in a documentary about Ebeye baptizing someone. 

   All of our investigators are doing well. What was a really great experience is one of the couples were studying with at the end of the lesson the man looks at us and tells how he used to get drunk all the time but now he doesn't want to drink anymore and he wants to study with us more. Diosi was less active, when we first started studying with him and Lupe, and hadn't been to church for a few years but is now going to baptize Lupe either this week or next. We have quite a few kids we have study with too. So BJ the one that was baptized just a little bit ago was telling us he's 11 so he could become a deacon but then his mom tells us he's only 9. His little sister Jiji also told us she was 8, only 7, so she could be baptized. It's pretty funny BJ tells us he needs to study still twice a day. What's the best part about it is they live with their grandpa, the 1st counselor, but their mom has started coming back to church again. Also just teach other primary kids who's family is members they were just never baptized as 8 year olds. We've gotten a list of potential elders, 170 some names, of members who haven't received the priesthood. Soromon and I have started tried to visit those members and help them to progress and come back to church. 

   There's some Americans here from Columbia University filming a documentary about Ebeye. Well they came and filmed Marlynn's baptism the girl who was baptized Saturday. I was the one baptizing so maybe you'll see me one day in the documentary. Really great to watch Diosi and Lupe get married and how happy they were. Afterwards they invited us to their house and they kept going to the store and buying snacks, I think they went 3 time. Work is going good have quite a few progressing investigators and less actives were strengthening the youth that go to seminary now in our branch has increased quite a bit. 

   "And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." Alma 7:12

   Short week. Love you guys. 

   Elder Weenig 

S. Weenig

   

 All is swell, very quick week I feel like I just did my other email a couple days ago instead of a week. I may be a bit sleep deprived from working to much but it's fun and worth it. 

   Have been doing quite a bit of service and work lately. Tuesday we built a new door for our neighbors. Also we changed the elders old house at the chapel into a classroom to use for seminary so we worked on that both Saturday and Monday working hard to fix and to save the wood we could. Because of the lack of land here many people have to completely redo their house if they're able to, but with some houses they try to just repair small parts over time so there's always service that can always be found doing. 

   Elder Namak was supposed to fly out too Lae Friday as well as last Friday but didn't because of the airlines here. Very undependable, got to spend over 3 hours each time going over. The airport is over in Kwajalein so we have to take a ferry to get over to a checkpoint area and just sit there. They have ferries only come every few hours so it can feel like your just stuck sitting there and a completely waste of time. Saturday we had Waniel's new companion Elder Polson come in from America. We had him perform the baptism for one of the Sister's baptism Saturday. 

   Yesterday we talked to an Armenian, This guy working over at Kwajalein but I guess comes to Ebeye to hang out with Marshallese people. Well we start talking to him outside a mon wia. He started asking questions about the church so we taught him about the restoration for over an hour. It was a very interesting experience a lot different than teaching Marshallese people. I've noticed from it that Marshallese don't ask too many questions. Also they accept and understand a lot of the doctrine that we share and teach them. Very different teaching someone who has absolutely no idea about the church to the people that we teach everyday who have been so exposed to this church. Well it was cool just to teach in English. Definitely really cool to see how fast the church can go in such small areas. 

   Not too much this week. This year our church changed from 9am to 11am so it's much better to have more time on Sunday morning. Soromon and I are teach the new member class so that is fun. They try to get us to teach priesthood to but we just tell that it's their job and they need to do it. 

S. Weenig

New Year 2016

Happy New Year. 

   Crazy to think that this is my last year on the mission, that I'll be home by the end of 2016. Nothing much happened this week and people have been still in the holiday phase so not too much work. It has been really nice and rainy and cold this week. 

   According to my parents I don't talk enough about the weird and interesting things in my mission. So here we go; I am on a tiny island that may be 3 miles long probably more like 2 and just a few hundred yards wide. The area that I'm working now takes 5 minutes to walk to the other end. Ebeye is packed with people they say that more than 1/3 of the people here are children. Woman here have 5+ children here and they're just running around everywhere. The schools here all have weird times some students will go from 8am-12pm and others 12pm-5pm and other times in between. The island is completely flat and could probably sink into the ocean in 20 years. Ebeye is called the slums of the pacific and is one of the densely populated islands in the world. people living in 0.2 sq mile. It's packed but very fun and all the people are great. 

   New Years we just stayed inside and just slept. A lot of people asked what we did and we just told them that we slept. New Years Eve and the following day was really slow so we just napped to catch upon sleep. With this New Year I decided I want to start and finish the bible again as well as the Book of Mormon in Marshallese and English. 

Wednesday we had a district meeting with just elder Soromon and myself and the two other elders, our senior couple were off island and one of the sisters had chicken pox. District Meeting just went down in the house and it was really good meeting. Basically we just sat down and read a little bit from Preach my Gospel and discussed it. Much better than me standing up there and giving a training. Talked a lot about just how we are going into the New Year and what goals and resolutions we want to set to be better missionaries. 

  Yesterday and this morning started waking up to help our youth get to seminary. Sometimes I'm really tired but we have a lot of youth that we're able to get that usually wouldn't. Soromon and I are working more with the young men in our ward because we have very few active priests in the ward. Continually striving to work hard and we have picked up a few more investigators and work all over Ebeye is great. All of the missionaries here get 30-40+ lessons a week so it's just amazing how good the work is. 

   Alma 5:49 And now I say unto you that this is the order after which I am called, yea, to preach unto my beloved brethren, yea, and every one that dwelleth in the land; yea, to preach unto all, both old and young, both bond and free; yea, I say unto you the aged, and also the middle aged, and the rising generation; yea, to cry unto them that they must repent and be born again.

P.S. I'm currently on roof of the building because the wifi is the best here. 

Love
S. Weenig