Easter

First of all happy Easter Sunday. Time continues to zoom by. Rayna and Randa should be baptized this Saturday as long as 2 others Jasmine and Lani then one more boy whose parents are members. So there will be 5 primary aged kids baptized this week.

  We've been trying with Rayna and Randa's parents but they're really not interested but happy their kids are coming to church and getting baptized. Their older brother, older than Renny, has gotten more interested so hopefully he'll start taking more discussions. 

  Jasmine and Lani study with the sisters but they're Rusen's daughters. Rusen has trouble coming to church because it's in Marshallese so hopefully his daughter's baptism will get him more involved. They're also Sonny's little half sisters so basically in the Marshall Islands everyone is related, always finding new investigators that are related to members in some way or another. 

   Waking up the kids for seminary has been good. What I've noticed is that it not only helps the kids out a lot but strengthens their families. All the time parents are thanking us for waking their kids up and getting them off to seminary. 

   Have only three investigators coming to church regularly; Rayna, Randa, and Betawin. Still working with current investigators getting to church. Although what has been really great is seeing an increase of less actives we visit start to come back to church regularly so it's really great to see. 

   Saturday was really fun. Kim and I as well as the other elders and sisters and some youth went down to one of the other islands. Just this huge 5 mile causeway stretch to an island called Gucci Gue. So we walked out there and brought some food to have a picnic. There's an old rusted ship out there so all the boys were playing tag at one point and it was way sweet because they have ladders and places to hide in. Half the thing is in water and then sunk into the sand pretty well. Solid pday and also cool to go to a place that feels more like an outer island. As you go out to Gucci Gue you pass the Irooj's property. This small island that has a massive wall around it. We hear news hear and there about America and it reminded of what Donald Trump said about building a huge wall. Also was able to hear about Belgium this week and everything that occurred there including some of the missionaries that were injured. Honestly America sounds scary right now. I'm so grateful to be out here in Ebeye and just sharing the gospel with everyone. Elder Ricks, the new senior couple, shares his experience in Wales as an elder and realize how great it is over here. I'm so grateful to be able to share about Jesus Christ and his restored church and gospel. Wish everyone a good day and to remember about Christ's resurrection and what the means for us. 

Elder Weenig

March 20

This week has gone by really quickly. I swear I was just typing up a letter yesterday. Our preparation days are now switched to Saturday so we'll be able to relax in the day and then if there is we'll have baptisms in the evening. One of our investigators Sonny was baptized. Work is going good and time is flying. 

   Oh I did get sick this week so it put me out of work Tuesday night and Wednesday then Thursday dragged myself through the day. It's pretty strange it seems like everyone over Ebeye his catching the same bug. I had diarrhea and extremely bead headache and all I could do was sleep. Wednesday we had district meeting and I did it sitting down. Afterwards we came back and I told Elder Kim he needed to find people to do splits and then just knocked out. He ended up working with Nelson and I stayed at the house with Sonny. 

  Have a lot of couples both new and less actives that we visit. The only problem is that most people are at work and so everyone wants to study between 5-8 basically so it can be hard to schedule at times. It's been good seeing the less active couples we work with coming back to church more often just a little harder getting new investigators to come to church. 

   This Sunday the branch president asked Elder Kim and I and the sisters if we could speak. I chose to talk about Temples and preparing ourselves. Shared the verses in the book of Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Then talked about how Elijah has already come and restored those keys in the first temple in these latter days. I made the point that in this church we are not only missionaries for the living but for the dead as well. How every member needs to prepare themselves for the temple. That we not only need to prepare ourselves and our families but the names of those who have died so we they can be baptized and we can be sealed to them as well. I had a lot of fun talking about the subject and found out quite a few good things. Well this church is true and I'm glad to be on a mission. 

Love you all, 

Elder S. Weenig

P.S. I have started the book of Doctrine and Covenants and will have a section to read everyday until the end of my mission (138 sections/days) 

S. Weenig

March 14

Sorry for not writing. My new companion was pretty lazy when he first got here to Ebeye but, now work is back to normal. Have a solid set of investigators and keeping finding more and more. 

  Elder Kim can get on my nerves a lot and is always talking and it can be hard for him to stay quiet. He's constantly on his ukulele singing made up songs and it honestly drives me insane. He wastes time a lot especially during the morning in our studies. I called him out one morning because he was playing on his ukulele and I asked him when the last time he read the scriptures and he couldn't even remember. He's gotten better though and because work has improved it makes it easier to put up with him. The main reason that I didn't work last week was pretty slow and my companion wasn't making it better. Right now we have about 4 couples were studying with and about 3 youth. Another problem work was so slow is that we were kind of in between investigators but we've been able to start with a lot more. 

   Our President came last weekend and talked a lot about setting goals and giving baptismal dates. Honestly I am not very good at giving baptismal dates and just let them be ready instead of really trying to help them progress and work towards that date. However we actually had a few of our investigators ask us about working towards a goal date to help push them more. Also we were able to watch a missionary broadcast and it helped me a lot with helping less actives. Most of the time with visiting less actives my companions and I just go visit and talk to them. The broadcast really helped us to understand to treat them as people who have just started studying and reteaching the lessons. We have started teaching quite a few less actives families and helping a lot of the men press forward to recieve the Melchezidek Priesthood. 

   Rayna and Randa, Joel and Renny's little sisters have started taking the lessons too and coming to church. My favorite is we'll teach them, Renny, Joel, and Gibson all at one time. Gibson is their 5 little brother who doesn't really understand the difference between testimony and prayer. We've taught their dad a lesson but he's always busy so slowly get the whole family involved. 

  Sonny is ready to be baptized this Saturday. Way cool to see how far he's come. He was talking about how shy he used to be not able to say a prayer in the lessons to just having a bunch of friends from seminary and church. What's really great is that he has a lot of friends that are getting more interested in the church. He told us how a lot of his friends are asking about him and he's invited like all his friends to his baptism. So hopefully we'll be able to pick up a lot more investigators. 

  Rusen is good. We got his daughters to start studying with the sisters so most likely we will get them baptized at the same date. 

   There was a story I read the book I'm reading, Crucible of Doubt, about a young missionary who wrote home to his mother feeling he needed to return from his mission because he didn't have a strong enough testimony. The Elder's mother responded "stop praying on your knees and start praying on your feet." I feel this is one of the most powerful statements is that our testimonies are often strengthened by helping oftens. Often prayers are not answered clearly as we think they should but rather by others. I feel I've never had a distinct answer or voice I've felt but, because of teaching others the gospel and seeing how it changes their lives my testimony is greatly strengthened. 

Love you thanks for your support 

Elder Weenig

S. Weenig