District Conference

Howdy!

How are you all doing?  I will assume that you are all doing great, and proceed to say that I am glad to hear that you are all doing well. :)  If not, just know that I am praying for you. :) Love you all and am so grateful that I get to have friends and family that are amazing as you all are!  Thank you for everything!  Love you all!

This week was amazing!  We had Zone Conference for all the missionaries on Tarawa.  It was an uplifting, informative experience.  We have much work to do.  This is the Lord's work and He will prepare a way for us.  He is amazing!  I love Him and His work.

I love my area and the work here so much!  We are able to meet with a great deal of people and they are all progressing very well.  The Lord has prepared many people here in Temaiku.  In fact, my favorite thing about Tarawa is the work. We spend the majority of our time in lessons, because the people here are so willing to hear the word.  So, we get many referrals and do very little tracting.  I am so happy that I get to be a part of the work!  We are working towards a stake.  That is what our focus is.  We had a district conference (stake conference for our area) and it focused on the steps to get a stake here.  Because once we have four stakes, there is a chance they will put a temple here!  Awesome, right?!  That is our hope. I hope that it all works out.  Temples are the most amazing part of our lives.  I have come to realize that more and more.

We had three people baptized this past Saturday.  Teaibwea, Borauea, and Tekaai.  They are great!  I am glad that they all were baptized.  We have two awesome returned missionaries in our branch who are a great help with the baptisms.  (One of them is a sister, so she comes for support and to give talks sometimes. the other does baptisms for us.) We hope that from this involvement, they will stay active. Soap box moment for all returned missionaries: Stay active and help the missionaries. Yep,  that is my plea to all returned missionaries and to all those that are member missionaries, which is all y'all.  You are all such amazing people, so please help them out.  Soup box moment over.  Yep.  Love you all.  Stay strong. :)  Also, my amazing sister, Brooke, shared the story of the starfish being saved one by one.  I hope you all know that you all can save the Lord's children - His starfish - one by one. We can help return them to the living waters, which are Christ and His word.

Thank you so much for everything that you all have done for me!  I appreciate your thoughts, prayers and support! Thank you thank you!

I love you all and pray for you!!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Weenig

Boraeua and Teaibwea's Baptism

Tekaai's baptism  with  Elder Hilliard, Elder Miller,  Elder Hilliard and Elder Bollin)

A path between investigators

Member's house - she cuts the grass with scissors.... No more complaints about mowing the lawn ever again. :)

Sister Sillito, Sister Ioane, Elder Bollin, and I --- Intake buddies.

District Conference Dances - at the Chapel

 The Temaiku 1st Elders danced... I want to learn one day....

Baptism

Howdy y'all!

Well, I had a wonderful week.  I hope that you all enjoyed life these past seven days! Whoa... Seven days.  Time flies.  Well, yep! I hope that all is well!  I love you all.  Yep. :)

This week two of the people that we have had the opportunity to help teach were baptized. Their names are Teitiaki and Tetabo. It was a great experience! Teitiaki is a 16 year old girl and is amazingly enthused about the church. She made friends with a few of the other girls her age that are also progressing to baptism, so she is already being a great support in bringing others into the church. I am so happy for her!  She is awesome!  I hope and pray
that she continues to stand firm and strong in her testimony of the Savior! Tetabo is a middle aged man. He and his wife want to go to the temple, so they have a goal.  His wife will be baptized this coming week. Baptisms are amazing events!  It is so great to see the joy and happiness on the faces of all of the people!  I am so glad that we were able to see these two enter into the kingdom of God.  Literally, when we become members of the church, we become a part of the kingdom of God!  Awesome, right! I am so glad that we get to be a part of that wonderful kingdom now and for eternity.

Fun facts from the week - I got to go to the dentist.  It was fun.  A squad of dentists from Utah came to Tarawa and did dental exams for all of the missionaries.  They are also doing dental exams for all of the the students at Moroni High School.  It is an amazing thing that they do. I was able to meet my Aunt Lisa's good friend, Kari. So fun! 

Also, we met people from Switzerland!  They saved up their money so that they could travel the world and help other people for a year or so.  Amazing!!!  They said that they pray and do their best to go where the Lord would have them go. They are such great examples of being good disciples of Christ.  They are doing their best to follow their Savior's wishes. They are not members, so we shared our testimony with them and are taking them an English Book of Mormon.  I am so glad that we got to meet them. They are amazing!  And yep. They are such strong examples of faith.

All is going well here.  Life as a missionary is great.  I recommend it to all of you.  As in, lifetime member missionary work!  It is truly the greatest thing when members help out with the missionary work.  So, yep.  I hope that you all get a chance to share the gospel with someone or to refer someone to the missionaries.  You are all amazing! I love you all and pray for you!

The Lord loves you, I love you, and the church is true.  Life is great!

Love you all!
Keep pressing on!
Hurrah for Israel!
Elder Weenig

Me, Timeon, Teitiaki, Tetabo, Elder Miller

Elder Dale and Elder Jubeck - companions on Abemama

Elder Miller and I after a rain storm

My exchange with Elder Powell (zone leader)

With Aunt Lisa's friend, Kari

Our kitchen

Temaiku

Howdy everyone!

Well, I hope you all had as wonderful of a week as I have had.  It was great.  Lots of people that we are able to meet with and preach the gospel.  And I got ice cream... :)

Anyway, Temaiku is amazing!  I love it!  My companion, Elder Miller, is great!  We are working with several people (Teitiaki and a couple, Tetabo and Teiabuea) to be baptized.  They will be baptized this Saturday.  They are all doing great!  There are also a good deal of other people that are all progressing very well towards baptism.  This area is just filled with prepared people!  It is amazing!  We are really hoping that we can prepare the groundwork for a ward and then a stake can be formed.  Kiribati just needs two more stakes and then it can qualify for a temple to be built on it!  Whoot!  I cannot even imagine the blessings and joy that a temple would bring to this country.  I hope we are able to get more people and more people to come unto Christ and then to stay with Him and help build His kingdom. 

One lesson that I learned this week is that prayer is the greatest thing in the entire world.  We are literally speaking with our Heavenly Father.  He will answer our prayers.  Then we can apply his answers into our lives.  It is amazing!  I am amazed at how much the Lord gives us.  He gives us all, and we give so little. He truly is our father, our parent, in heaven.  How wonderful is it that we can talk to Him, an all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing personage, whenever and whereever we want.  It is wonderful.  I love prayer and I testify that it is real.

I love you all!  Keep the faith!  You are all amazing, strong spirit children of Heavenly Father!  I love you all and pray for you!  Hope you are all well!  Keep up the great work!

Love you!

Pray hard!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Weenig 

First week on Tarawa

Howdy to all y'all!

I hope and pray that you are all well where ever you all may be!  You are all the greatest people in the world!  I hope you all know that! One thing that I learned this week is that we are always an example to other people -- we just choose what kind of example we are going to be (a good one or a bad one).

Well, this week I was transferred to Tarawa.  My new area is amazing!  I am in the Temaiku 2nd Branch.  I worked here during Christmas, so I already knew some of the people.  We had all three hours of church!!!! WHOOT! The branch runs by itself.  I did get to bear my testimony on member missionary work to testify that members need to be super involved in every single baptism.  There a great number of people who are ready to hear the gospel! I hope we truly invite the Spirit into their lives so that they are truly converted and that they stay strong. There are lots of converts, but also lots of less actives.  That is why it is so important to have member missionaries in every investigator's progression to baptism. It is fun to be able to work here, and I am so truly happy that I am able to serve the people in Temaiku.  My new companion is Elder Miller and he is a district leader.  He is great! He has lots of energy and is amazing at speaking the language. Transfer is great! 

Anyway, it was a good week.  I just ate a cone of ice cream.  Yum. Tarawa has sooooo much cargo.   It is crazy....

Our apartment is a cinder block building with a fridge! WHOOT! A cooking thing, and a shower - no hot water, but a SHOWER!  And a toilet!  I am living in luxury. :) Plus, we have a nice ocean breeze.

What I learned from my study this week:  the war chapters of Alma are literally a representation of our spiritual war with Satan.  If we are strong, and we try, and we prepare continually, we will overcome and overpower Satan.  It is through our faith and our righteousness that we maintain our freedom of choice and our joy.  It is amazing!  But if we are complacent and we don't try and we turn away for God, the source of all truth and joy and power, then we fall.  They are amazing scriptures.  Lots of symbolism and representation in them.  I love the scriptures, there are so many precious things in them!

I love you all!  I know that the gospel is true and real!  I know that God lives and loves us all! You are the greatest. Go out and serve Him!

Love you all!
Hurrah for Israel!
Every member a missionary!
Elder Weenig

Farewell party with Elder Dale and Elder Jubeck