Monday, December 30, 2013

December 30, 2013

Skype was definitely the highlight of my Christmas! It was great talking to you guys and catching up! Now we just got to wait until May to do it again! Haha crazy to think I only have one more Christmas call left ALREADY. This is going by too fast. I don't want it to go away!

For this week, I have an awesome story! So from Christmas until yesterday, not a lot had happened. A member in my ward got hit and was in an accident, but other than his car, he was fine. He's just been resting for some time, so we went over there a lot and talked with him. We also talked to members a lot. But just barely yesterday, as we were at church, some new people walked in we hadn't seen before. Naturally, me and my companion went to go talk to them. The mom greeted us and told us she finally got work off of Sundays so she could come back to church, and she is actually still a very faithful member, but get this!!! She has a niece that lives with her now, and she is 17, and her name is Estephanie. She wanted to come to church because she is very interested, so we met her at church and asked if we could go over and teach her lessons. She accepted and so we went over after church, and we had a little trouble finding the house, but my companion just had a feeling it was this one isolated house. We stayed outside that house for about 15 minutes when the Sister finally opened the door and let us in. After that we taught Estephanie her first lesson and she really enjoyed it. She most definitely wants to learn more so we have time set up to go back on Wednesday at 2. We asked her before she left if she'd be willing to get baptized, which is crazy to do after the first lesson, but she said as she learns more she definitely would want to if she felt it was right!!! It just amazes me how the Lord prepares people to receive His gospel. Absolutely amazing! :)

Oh and another thing, we got water one day. We hooked up about 20 hoses together and strung it from the fire department water source to our house. It was still a lot of work, but we filled up all of our buckets! That was two days ago. Our buckets are basically empty again. :( But hey, you got to work to relax right? Still haven't actually had any water come out of the taps in our house for 3 weeks still though. But hey, that house I told you we were looking at a while back? The Office Elders went and checked it out and told us it is likely we could be moving to that house in two weeks. Best part?? IT ALWAYS HAS WATER. We'll see how that goes! Oh and next week we are going on splits so I will be sleeping in another missionary home for a day and do work in their area so we'll see how that goes! 

Anyways, I love you guys, glad to see you are all having a good break! Remember to read your scriptures! They really are a blessing and teach you a lot! LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,
Elder Weiss

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas Greetings!

Its that time of season!!!!! My dearest family, and friends....
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Boy what a day it has been for me! I am so grateful that I get the opportunity to be a missionary during the Christmas season. What a blessing it is. Let me just start off by saying thank you to all of you. You have all made such a big and inspiring impact on my life that has helped me become the person I am today. Its the season of giving, so I would like to give you all my thanks and also, I want to give you a little rundown of what has been going on in my life.
Basically life here is amazing. Its always hot, but I love it and the people are so nice. Well most of them. During the last couple of weeks members keep inviting us over to had dinner or lunch with them, which is nice considering I only have about $40 for the rest of this month for food and stuff. That right there is a blessing! Anyways, the Spanish is coming along quite nicely. Although I still struggle, it is starting to get easier. Which is great! :)
My house...... we haven't had water for the past three weeks now, so we bathe at members houses and stuff, and the water is COLD. Like straight out of the deepest part of the ocean. Freezing. I am used to it now though! Hahah but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Be grateful for what you have!! Anyways life here is great.
Anyways, the people here are easy to talk to. Hard to teach, but super friendly. Its a struggle to get into doors but I know the Lord will bless us.
So, MERRY CHRISTMAS! This day is for the Savior so remember Him as you go throughout this day. Remember what He did for us all. To you all I wish you a very Merry Christmas! I am praying for you and I love you all so very much!
Con Amor,
Elder Weiss :)

Monday, December 23, 2013

December 16th Emails

My area is called Hato Nuevo. It's 45 minutes outside of the main city. About 30 minutes from the MTC. There is no address for our house. It's in a big old apartment thing, so we have no clue what our address is. We get all our mail and stuff from the mission office. 

When we left the MTC we left at 4 in the morning to go to the mission home where I met my new companion. The traffic here is absolutely nuts. It's a "guess if its safe" type of deal, like in the Bahamas. Really sketchy but you get used to it. Anyways after I got my new companion we sat in a home for about 4 hours talking about life in the field. Then we left using a guagua (bus). Lucky us though, a guy in our ward is a guagua driver so we got our own seperate ride. The bad thing about guaguas is when they are public they fill them up as much as they can. Anyways, we got to our house and I met my two other housemates. One is from the DR and the other is from Guatemala. They only speak Spanish, which in turn has helped me learn a lot faster. I started unpacking that night and found out that half the time we don't have light or water. Yes we get it, but its rare. So when we have it, we fill up our buckets for the upcoming weeks and we iron all our shirts and stuff like that. Recently though we've had it every day which is nice. The water is still really cold, but I've gotten used to that.

 No I don't live by the beach, instead I am in the mountains which reminds me of Utah so I like it a lot! In fact, I still haven't seen the ocean yet. I guess that's another P-Day opportunity. So its Christmas soon and I honestly don't feel it at all. WHERE IS THE SNOW? hahaha Actually there is one part of the DR that gets snow. That's right, snow. It doesn't stick but it snows there. That's what I've heard anyways, don't know if its true or not. haha

So with the guy from the University, I have heard from him! He emailed me last week and said he is getting taught by some missionaries and has read the entire Book of Mormon. He sounds really excited and is planning on getting baptized soon. So glad I was able to be there for him, and the Lord put me in his path. As for that other family. The mom and dad want to be baptized and have to wait. The reason why is because the husband is waiting for his visa and he can't change his marital status now or he'll have to wait longer and hes already been waiting two years. However, he finds out this month if he gets it or not. If he doesn't, then they are gonna get married and get baptized. If he does get it, he will leave and the mom will get baptized. Kind of a weird situation but you just got to roll with it.

Another thing.... I play baseball all the time down here. There's a professional baseball player in my ward so we play with him a lot. Needless to say, I am officially a baseball fan. And my favorite team? Definitely the Boston Red Sox. :) Hahaha Anyways, besides that, we have been doing a lot of tracting lately. Not a lot of investigators for us right now which is a real shame, because I really want to be able to teach this gospel!!!!! So we do a lot of tracting. Scary thing..... recently I've been shaking non stop. Like I can't stop shaking. Don't know why, but it'll pass. It's probably because I have been feeling a little sick recently, but that will pass.

My Spanish is getting better slowly. As usual I've been struggling and have been getting really down on myself, but I'll get it eventually. I know with the Lord's help I will be just fine. He has prepared me for this work. :) 

There are only 4 Elders in my district, me included, and they all live in my house. And our Christmas we are going over to a families house to have a Christmas dinner. The husband is a pro baseball player. They are called the Castro's and I love them! They are so cool! I can't wait to Skype with you on Christmas!

I love you all and I have you all in my prayers. Remember, the Lord is always there with you! 

Con Amor, Elder Weiss


Monday, December 9, 2013

Dec. 9, 2013-Transferred from the MTC out into the Field

So lets just say life here is great! I've got some stories for you though!!!!!

It was a cruel awakening hitting the field. The CCM is nothing like the field at all! Crazy crazy stuff happens! I'll start with the plus side. On the plus side, I have a way cool ward! Super awesome people and they are always begging me to come eat at their house, which is awesome. Also, on Saturday, and this will sound crazy, but I had my first baptism!!!! A nine year old kid named Jason, who is a convert! Crazy story. We couldn't fill up the baptisimal font because there was no water, so the fire department came and they filled it up for us. Anyways, we baptized him and are later planning on baptising the rest of the family! They all want to be! :) So thats awesome!

 And my companion, he is just the boss!!!! What a cool guy. His name is Elder Zilm and he has 16 months, he knows the language extremely well, which is good considering I feel like I know nothing! haha and the other people in our house are way cool! They only speak Spanish though, which is also helping me learn a lot! I also got to give a priesthood blessing to one of our new investigators in Spanish last night. That was kinda crazy! But it was a good learning experience! :) 

Now for the bad: Hahahahaha so basically, I shower with a bucket and pail. and let me just say, the water is beyond freezing. It's like jumping into the snow naked. Soooo cold. Another thing.... my apartment rarely has light. So that's a downer but you get used to that. :)  Anyways, another crazy thing... haven't gotten sunburned
yet, but man it is always hot! And there is no air conditioning anywhere!! I got used to that though so no biggie. :) When we walk around people yell at us and tell us to go home, but that doesn't get me down at all! :) And I never eat like ever. I always work out in the morning and stuff, but we never have time to walk 20 minutes to get food. But I'll be fine. We are stalked up on rice.

 Anyways that is life so far! Been doing a ton of tracting and contacting and proselyting. Hopefully we'll be getting some new investigators soon! I love you and I've been praying for you! This work is amazing and I am so grateful that I can be a part of it. Love you!!

Elder Weiss