Thursday, August 20, 2015

Tuesday, August 18, 2015 - Special Work Week

This week has been one of the top five best weeks in the mission. Let me explain why!

My companion and I went on splits with two members and found an additional 20 new people that are interested in our message. So our investigator pool is growing, and I feel like we don't even have time to waste even if we wanted to, because there are so many people waiting on us and counting on us to bring them the gospel message. :)

We met a girl named Alicia who is super cool! She is a lawyer, but her being a new investigator didn't really know the rules of us as missionaries, and when we showed up to her house, she invited us in, since we had contacted her the day before and set up the appointment, she greeted us, as most Dominicans greet their friends, with a kiss on the cheek. So ya, it was super awkward... We had to explain how we don't do that on our missions, and she felt awkward, but, it turned into us explaining our lesson, saying how if we reject God the way that we rejected her kisses, God would feel just as sad and awkward as she did, and for that, she should give our message a change, to not reject it, and to ask God if it was true. Kind of a weird way to change the lesson, but the spirit definitely indicated that to us as a way of changing a bad situation into a good situation. And it made for a good story. ;) But she really understood because of the feelings she felt after she felt awkward. She kept saying "You're right. I don't want God to feel the same way I did. You have a point!" And for that, we kept her interested! Really cool way to see how the Holy Ghost directs us in everything, even when you think it'd be impossible!

We had a Zone Conference this week. It was really good. It was focused on faith and baptism. It was really powerful and I really enjoyed it. President Nuckols has a very special spirit to him that made me feel a strong impression of the spirit. It was also a very different Zone Conference, because it was my last Zone Conference in my mission. It was so weird to think, "I don't ever have to come to one of these again..." Ya, it is still weird....

A girl we teach, named Kenya, came to church this week, and got lost on why there was a talk about Joseph Smith. She thought we were admiring and adoring him, not God, so we spent a long time in the afternoon explaining why we focus so much on how Joseph Smith was a prophet that restored Jesus's true church to the world. By the end, her thoughts flipped in a 180 and she, at the end of the lesson, bore testimony to us that he truly was a prophet, and she felt that impression as we spoke. Is the Holy Ghost just like carrying all our weight this week, or what???

Yesterday was really fun! As I said before, we got the opportunity to translate for doctors that were doing a service for the Dominican people by giving free medical care. Only thing is, they were all American, and didn't speak Spanish, so our job was to be by there side all day and be their voice. There were many stations, like a blood checking station, a pharmacy, and lots of others, but Elder Hasler, Elder Nielsen, Elder Durrant and I got stationed in the Dentistry. It was like being in a dentist office. And it turned out, when we got there, that we were translating for the US Navy, who were also doctors and dentists and all that. There were some actual specialist that flew in to help that weren't navy, but all of it was free, and no one was paid to do this. It was one big giant service. I translated for a Commander Sargent who was just great. He was a dentist who decided to do more and give more in his life and became a part of the Navy. He was awesome, and very buff. In the picture he is on the far left with the mustache. It was fun to watch them work. I also got to stand outside and tell impatient people to go sit back down and wait, which was kinda fun too, not going to lie. But we basically all translated for everyone who was there, just depending on if they said "Come help me real quick." but most of my time was spent with Commander. That's what I called him. haha I relate the experience to the Holy Ghost. You see, God gives commands, and we feel and hear the truth of them through the Holy Ghost. The dentist, gave commands, but our Dominican patients could only understand with the help of the translator, that made it clear and spoke the truth of what the dentist had said. The translator was the role of the Holy Ghost. Without his witness, his aid so to speak, clear things from God become confusing and tricky in our lives. But when we listen to the spirits promptings, we are able to act on the clarity and purity of God. It was a learning experience for me just as much as mentally and physically, as it was spiritually. Funny experience now. During our time there, we watched about 60 teeth get yanked out by oral surgeon. One guy had the last three teeth he had on his top row of teeth pulled out, and he was really old. So as he laid there, he fell asleep, and of course there was lots of blood, and his mouth was open. I thought he had died. Scared me so bad (this being the first tooth pull of the day, I didn't think they were going to do that, so all the blood was a surprise to me), so in English I said to Elder Nielsen, "Is he dead?" And his oral surgeon responded saying "No, but I should kill him for not taking care of his teeth!" To me it was super funny! Hahaha Another funny story, another man got four teeth pulled out, I was translating for him, and they put four gauze in his mouth to stop the bleeding, so his mouth was full, and he had to keep pressure on it for 30 minutes. So he had a question for Commander, but couldn't speak. So we played the hardest game of charades ever. Even commander was like "Just tell him he won't die. I hate this game of charades. I've never won." He was like showing us the number two with his finger than pointing to his mouth, than to his wrist. Somehow I figured out that he wanted to know if he could replace his teeth with fake ones in the future, but it took a good 10 minutes of guesses. Lots of other stories to share, but I will spare it for now, and tell it when I am home. But the experience was fun. I got pictures, but I won't share the gross ones with you, just the ones of the Navy soldiers and doctors we worked with! :)

Today we went to a museum. On the way, I once again found a tarantula, but it was alive. It got kinda mad and tried to spring onto me as I took a picture. So whatever, I got a picture of it right before it jumped. :) Hahahaha I didn't kill it, I let it be. Then the museum was cool. I didn't take tons of pictures because it wasn't like amazing... and there weren't even dinosaur bones so.... eh. But ya! That was my week! It was amazing!!!

Love you all! Keep the faith! :)

Elder Weiss :)

"a deer figurine for Christmas.... "

"WHY ARE THEY ALREADY PREPARING?"

"Nice Flowers

"Day of translating"

The American doctors and Elder's who translated for them.

At the Planetarium

Mr. Penguin... and not from Batman....

High Five

Bear Hug anyone?

"This tarantula was bigger than the other one and I didn't kill it."

Planetarium

"I was on the moon."

Moroni above the City