Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Well everyone sounds like they are doing great! Life sounds like it is just crazy back in the good old USA! I really have been blessed with family and friends that I truly feel I don't deserve! You all truly inspire me and give me great advice that makes every week so much easier and better! Thank you so much for all of the love and support and all of your letters! Sorry for how long it takes me to reply! I love you all and am grateful for all that you have done for me!

This past week we had Zone Conference. First one in the field! It was great! President Wooley and his wife came down and we also had some baptisms while they were here.. :( unfortunately none of them were Elder Nutt and I's investigators. For Zone Conference we learned a lot about Islam because that is the majority of the people that we are teaching.. it was so interesting! It really is crazy how similar our religions are in many ways... it gave me a new perspective on how I can teach our Muslim investigators or at least get them to open up and talk to us a little bit more.

The Baptisms were great! Basically for baptisms here we just bring in a huge tub in the Church and fill it with water. It was very interesting and new for me! But, it was very spiritual and uplifting! It is amazing to me the things that people give up to become members of the Church.. many have been shunned by their families because of their new found belief. They have such trust in God and never deny the feelings and promptings that they get to be baptized despite of the judgement from family and friends... It has been a very humbling experience for me to see that. It makes me think about what I have given up or sacrificed.. I feel so blessed to have grown up under the covenant and I have taken for granted such things that I now realize are the most important in life. I have been blessed with amazing family, friends, the opportunity to live in a free country, the privilege to grow up in the one and only true church on the Earth, and the greatest opportunity to give up two years of my life to serve my Father in Heaven and give every second I have to Him. I can never give enough thanks for what I have been given...

Well the big news of the week! I finally received my permission to preach! It only took about five weeks into my mission but I can finally preach the gospel! This has actually added a lot more obstacles in the missionary work.. before I just had to worry about talking to the people which the spirit tells me to talk to, now I have to be able to recognize what the Spirit wants me to say to people and preach to them! I am working really hard to do this!

My companion Elder Nutt and I are doing great. We are finally getting used to how we work together and we have been trying to get more organized in our missionary work to become more effective with our time and more persistent with accomplishing our goals.

At the moment we only have one investigator who is really progressing and that is Nona. She is still reading the Book of Mormon and I think next week is when she plans on praying about it to see whether it is true! I am so excited for this because I know that she is going to receive and answer! she has worked so hard and I think just wants to do everything the right way.. she is doing great!

We have ton of investigator for English and piano and we are working really hard to slowly get them involved in the gospel. This week we had a lot of success with two English Investigators in the gospel and I think that they will be interested to start taking gospel lessons with us as well.. I hope that I can to my part to keep them interested!

Well that is really most of what has happened during this past week! once again thank you for the love and support! I am so lucky to have such amazing family and Friends! I love you!
Love,
Elder Weihing