Alma 26:22 - Exercise faith through good works

Hey family!

   Wooh! First week of 2013! I´ll just dive in talking about the week.

   Monday night was New Year´s Eve.  We spent the night with the same family that we spent Christmas with.  We had a good barbaque and the food was delicious, as usual! I´ve included a few photos of the food.  I don´t know if I told you all this last week, but for new years Chileans burn life size dolls that represent the past year.  They burn the mistakes of the year before in order to start fresh for the new year.  It was really interesting seeing all these life size dolls burning in front of all the houses. We had permission to stay outside of our pension until 1230 that night!! WOOH PARTY! Not really though.  Once 11:30 rolled around, our bodies started shutting down on us.  It was passed our bed time and our bodies knew it. But it was a fun night all the same!

   This week we have been working really hard to contact all the references we have obtained. One reference we went by really enjoyed our message.  Let´s call her P. P is a single mother of 2 kids and she wants the absolute best for her two sons.  She knows that she must set a strong example for her them.  She has already had many experiences in her life where God has shown his love for her. We started talking to her outside her house and next thing we know an hour had passed by.  She told us a lot of her life stories and all of them provided a Gospel principle that we could teach about.  By the end of the conversation, she had tears in her eyes.  She apologized for sharing her life story with us and said something that really caught my attention.  She said something along the lines of ¨trust radiates from you.¨ I have been thinking about this statement and have come to the conclusion that this ¨trust¨ is the Spirit.  I pray everyday for this Spirit.  Without Him, I am nothing.  Without the Spirit, I cannot become the servant Heavenly Father needs me to be. P is beginning to progress very rapidly.  Her eyesight is terrible, but she has such a strong desire to read the Book of Mormon so she uses a magnifying glass to read it.  I love her dedication to know the truth. Her desire to read has helped me have deeper and more meaningful studies.  

   Sorry this week´s letter is slightly short.  The mission has no copies of the Book of Mormon to give out to people right now. We haven´t been able to have much progress with investigators due to this.  I am really grateful to Mom and Dad for sending me an extra Book of Mormon for Christmas.  I gave this copy to P because I know she earnestly seeks to know the truth. Mom and Dad, you both gave out a Book of Mormon this past week. Congrats!!

I pray for and love you all!

Elder Weidman

D&C 15: 6 - The work of most importance is to ¨declare repentance¨

Hey family!

   It was awesome being able to talk to you all this past week!  I loved being able to see all the family and that no one has really changed.  I don´t want anyone to change when I´m gone.  You all better promise me that you won´t change. Well Taylor could lose a few pounds but other than that, NO ONE CHANGE! Right now I am wearing a new tie from the parents, a new shirt, and new socks! It´s such a good feeling.  I feel clean and refreshed! I hope that you enjoyed my little ¨presents¨. I enjoyed every single present and every single 12 days of Chrismas card. I looked forward to reading them every morning. 

   I know you all are dying to hear about my adventurous Christmas Night here in Chile.  Well actually it would be Christmas Eve Night in the United States, but here in Chile the night of the 24th is when they celebrate Christmas.  Elder Crist and I spent the night with the G family. I love this family.  The dad is a member in the branch presidency and he is always dancing and full of life.  He reminds me of Captain Jack Sparrow when he talks. It´s hilarious! He´s always swaying his arms and is really animated when he talks to us.  Anyways, to begin the night off we sang carols to some members in their homes. I was honored to be able to sing to these families and bring the Spirit of Chrismas into their homes.  Every house that we went to offered us dulces and (of course) we couldn´t deny them! I´ve started to stop caring about how much food I eat.  I have a good number of months to lose all the fat I gain.  (JOKE) After we sang, we returned to the G family´s home.  We had our only dinner of the whole year and man was it delicious! By the end of the meal I couldn´t move.  I had eaten to my point of maximum. We shared a message about the mother of Jesus (thank you Ren for sharing your experience about this scripture!) and then departed on our way home.  That was our eventful Christmas night.  It was full of love and food.  The two best things in the world!

   The actual day of Christmas was just a normal day for us. Schedule wise.  We found a lot of success that day because most people were enjoying there Christmas´ inside their homes.  We didn´t want to disturb them too much, therefore we shared the same message about Mary with all of them.  We were able to set many appointments for the coming week that day.  We prayed that the Lord would guide us to families that needed a message about Jesus Christ, and I know without a doubt that He was there guiding us the whole day.  We gave everything to him that day.  Just like every other day.  That is the best gift I could give this Christmas.  My whole attention to serving the Lord. 

   Yesterday we were teaching a man and his family about the Book of Mormon.  Everyone in the family except for one son has been baptized.  The son is taking discussions with us.  The father told Elder Crist and I that we are ¨personajes¨ of the Lord.  Joseph Smith also used this word to describe Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ when they appeared unto him in the Sacred Grove.  This loving statement that this man said made me realize that we truly are messengers of the Lord.  There are people here in Chile that are looking for an answer just like Joseph Smith was.  We are the two ¨personajes¨ that need to appear to them.  Are purpose is to invite these people to the true ¨personajes¨. We are there guide to feeling of the Spirit.  We cannot convert them.  Only the Spirit.  I feel that this truth is crucial to know while serving as a missionary.  We are not to tell people that they are wrong.  We are not even to tell people that we are right.  We are to tell people that they can find the truth through prayer.  We are to testify of the power of the Holy Ghost.  Testify of our loving Heavenly Father.  If we are trying to convince our investigators that the church is true, then we will acheive nothing.  These children of God that we are teaching will not gain their own testimony.  Only through the Holy Ghost can these people truly be converted. As a missionary, I am nothing without the Holy Ghost.  I can only fulfill my purpose with Him.

   In other news, I fulfilled 19 years this past week.  Now I have 19 years! The pictures I included were taken during my birthday breakfast. SO DELICIOUS! I feel like a legit missionary now that I am 19 years old.  Even though 18 year olds are now legit missionaries. 

  Thank you for all your prayers!  I pray for and love you all!

   Elder Weidman

2 Nephi 2:8 -- The Importance of our Message

Hey Family!


NO! I just wrote a whole letter that was all detailed and pretty but
the computer exited out... And there is no draft. And I only have 5
minutes now.... Sorry for the shortness of this letter than. Here are
a few key points.


1. The branch here is amazing.  In the past 2 weeks we have received
10 references and have a good number of investigators as a result.


2. The sister and mom of Gerardo are taking lessons.  The sister is
really receptive and always keeps the commitments.  The branch really
reached out to accepting her.  The mom likes being independent.  She
has a slight problem with the commandments. She saw the change that
Gerardo went through and wants this for her kids, but not for her.  We
are praying for her.


3. We have a new investigator.  Her name is N. Not really but that´s
what I´m going to address her as.  She is the daughter of a less
active.  She really wants to be baptized and start a new life because
she has a lot of bad experiences in her past.


4.  We are working really hard in an area called Bicentenario.  There
is only one member family that lives there so we mainly yell at doors
all day long. And talk to people on the street.  We made friend with 2
dogs and they follow us around everyone. Even to our house at night.
I have pictures but I´ll include them next week.


5. Thanks for the 12 days of Christmas!! I open them first thing every morning.


6.  It´s 100 degrees here. Things are heating up for Christmas.


I pray for you!


Elder Weidman

D&C 6:4-5 - If one speaks by the Holy Ghost, they will speak the mind of God.

Hey family!
   I love being able to be a tool in the hand of the Lord. This week I really focused on following all promptings from the Lord.  Of course I couldn´t follow all because I´m human and have my weaknesses but I want to share two spiritual experiences I had this week. Here´s the first one:
1.  In Chile there are many inactive members of the church.  Our main focus each day is passing by these members and trying to reactivate them while at the same time trying to find new investigators.  We do this by talking to all we see on the street, by asking the inactive members if they know anyone who would benefit from a message about Jesus Christ and happiness, or if the member isn´t home we will ¨yell¨ at the houses touching theirs.  One day this week we were doing our usual work of contacting inactives and we had a whole schedule of who to contact.  We had just finished working in one area of our sector and were about to continue on to another according to our agenda when a thought came into my mind to go visit a certain hermano in the ward.  We looked in the directory for his address and started heading to his house.  While we were walking, I saw a man walking our way.  He didn´t make any gesture to talk to us, but my body acted without my mind and my hand shot out to shake his.  Without even thinking.  Of my companion and me, I was the furthest away from this man. I cut off my companion to get to this man. Without even realizing I was doing it.  I started talking to him and asking him the usual questions than can spark a discussion about the Gospel.  He told me that he was a member of the church, but hadn´t gone to church for a long time.  He also said that I had been directed by the Spirit to talk to him.  He has been dealing with depression the past couple of weeks and has needed help but hasn´t known where to turn. He said that he would not have stopped us, but would have kept walking if I hadn´t stopped him.  If the Spirit wouldn´t have moved my body for me. When he told me his name, I realized that he was an inactive member that we had been looking for for the past 6 weeks but had never been home. The Spirit knew who this man was.  What he needed and when he needed it. We set up an appointment with him and continued on our way.  When we got to the member´s house, we realized that it was the wrong address. We also realized that it said this on the directory and we had neglected to see it.  And I ALSO realized that I knew exactly where this man lived.  If we had seen the little message on the directory or if I had remembered where he lived, we would have never run into this inactive.  The Lord guided us.  He made me forget where the member lived. He caused us to not see the little message written in the directory. I was able to be a tool in His hands in order to talk to one of His sons who had fallen away from His church.  He is aware of every single one of us.  We should never forget this.  Never let our own thought cloud over this wonderful truth that everyone needs to know.  There is no better work that anyone can do on the earth other than missionary work.
2.  Don´t worry, this experience is a bit shorter.  We have been teaching a 12 year old for the past 3 weeks. His mom is an inactive but she wants him to be baptized and he wants to be baptized but he won´t decide on a date.  He knows he needs to but he says that he feels unprepared. This past week we were talking to him about his baptism and he told us that he wants to wait till next year to be baptized.  He didn´t have any reason why. Or wouldn´t tell us.  At this moment, the Spirit prompted me to take him to the chapel.  We were a good 5 minute walk away from the chapel, but I didn´t want to deny this prompting.  I stopped the conversation that was happening and straight up asked if we could go take a tour of the chapel.  He has never been to church even though we´ve invited him every week.  He got permission from his mom and we left. I could tell that he wasn´t very excited to go, so I started talking to him about video games.  Something to light up the mood when we walked over. When we got there, he was a lot happier than when we left his house due to the video game chat.  Who knows, this could have been a prompting from the Spirit to. Anyways, we showed him the sacrament room, the classrooms, and the paintings on the wall.  We ended with the baptismal font.  I told him that he would be baptized in this font.  Then I had him read Mosiah 4:10. It says something along the lines of if you know these things are true than do them.  After he read that, we stood there for a good 20 seconds in silence.  He was staring at font the entire time. I then asked him how he felt and he said ¨bacán¨which means awesome.  I asked him how he felt about baptism and he said that he wanted to be baptized this month. What an amazing sentence that was!! We offered a pray of thanks to Heavenly Father and left.  He will have to wait till next month to be baptized because of a sickness his mom has and a vacation he is going on at the end of the month, but he is stoked for baptism. I am again thankful for the Lord guiding me during that experience. 
   Well that´s all for this week. Marsh and Rach, today I got you package from the 17th of November. THANKS!!!!! I hope everyone is enjoying the cold air.  It´s beginning to look a lot like summer here. HAHAHA But seriously. It´s hooot. 
   I love and pray for all of you.
   Elder Weidman

John 15:4-5 Abide in Christ. Branch cannot bring forth fruit without vine.

Hey family!!
   This past week was a bitter sweet one.  Elder King transferred to
Valpo (Valparaiso) yesterday.  He was a great missionary and trainer
for me. I pray that he is able to follow the Spirit and continue to
bring people unto Christ.  He was a great example to me and I will
forever thank him for that.  My new companion is Elder Crist.  Every
Chilean that meets him always says ¨¿Como Cristo? JAJAJAJA¨ It´s
hilarious. It means ¨like Christ? HAHAHAHA¨ He´s from Arizona, has 6
months left on the mission, and will be my trainer for the remaining 6
weeks of my training.
   The branch is really loving here in Limarí. When Elder King said
his goodbyes to them, they were very sad for him but they kept
reassuring me that everything would be alright.  That they would help
me.  This past week was a big step for my Spanish.  Suddenly I can
actually have full on conversation with the members and investigators!
Of course there are still some words that I need to ask about, but I
can get the gist (for the older generation. Gist means main message)
of what they are saying. They really have become family to me and I am
excited to spend Christmas and my birthday here with them.  Don´t
worry, they aren´t replacing you all. Only adding to the family.
   Patricia has a sure baptismal date now! The 15th of December. We
had a really spiritual lesson about ¨La Familia: Una Proclamación para
El Mundo¨. After reading the message, Patricia understood why she
needed to be baptized.  To set an example for her children.  She´s
known this whole time that she needs to be baptized, but she´s been
procrastinating the day.  Now she´s fully ready.  It´s sad that Elder
King won´t be here for her baptism, but she knows the amount of effort
he put in and that´s all that matters.
   We received the news that hermanas (sister missionaries) will be
coming to Limarí next change! This means more work for the ward as
well as the elders this change.  I realized that there are some areas
in our branch that we never visit, so this past week we made it a goal
to spend half a day in one of these areas to find new people.  What a
great experience that was.  I felt like one of the early apostles
going to a foreign land without a knowledge of what would happen.  We
had no map. Nothing.  But we were able to set 4 appointments and we
placed 3 Books of Mormons.  We would have given more but we ran out.
It´s a good 30 minute walk to this area but it´s worth it.  I have a
feeling that this area will become a prime working area in the next
change.  Especially since there will be 4 missionaries working in
Limarí. President Káhnlein told us that there are going to be at least
one pair of hermanas in every zone.  EVERY ZONE! That´s crazy sauce.
We have none right now and be the end of next change we will have 4
hermanas in the zone.  The work force is growing rapidly.  We will see
the results of the constant labor in the next few years. Grand
results.
   Today is our P-day because of transfers.  I found out that every
first P-day of each change is on Tuesday due to the transfers being on
Monday.  Yesterday was a sweet experience as well.  I was slightly
nervous to have a new companion because he had no knowledge of the
area there for it was up to me to find the appointments and all that
jazz.  I prayed continually throughout the day for comfort and
direction and The Lord heard my prayers.  I felt that someone was
along side me directing me the whole time.  It was amazing. Also I had
to talk alot more than usual yesterday, and I realized that I don´t
have to think in English before I speak anymore.  Like I said early, I
can carry out a conversation in Spanish now!  The Gift of Tongues is
the only way that I have been able learn and understand so rapidly.
The Lord is aware of my needs and I have faith that as I give all my
effort, He will help me along the way.
   I still haven´t heard anything about how or when I´ll call on
Christmas.  I should know all the details by the end of this week.
Congratulations on the cat Marsh and Rach!!  I hope that he or she is
just as great as Vlad. If you want another cat just let me know. Or a
dog.  I can pick one off the street here and send it to you.  And that
goes for the whole family.
   I continue to pray for all of you!
Elder Weidman The Great