"...I, the Lord your God, ... remember those who are upon the isles of the sea;..." 2 Nephi 29:7: September 2017

Howdy y'all!

I live. :) So, life is great. Where there is life, it is great. :)

I am very happy. So, I returned back from Tab South a couple weeks ago, but I have not been able to email due to time of preparation day. But today I have the time. Whoot! :) So, I hope that you are all well! I want you all to know that I love you all and that you are all the greatest! Thank you for all you do.

I am serving in the Teaoraereke 2nd Ward on the island of Tarawa. There are three companionships in our ward. Impressive right? It is a great ward with an awesome bishop. We have all of our ward meetings and even meet with the bishop weekly! It is awesome! I am happy to see so many people fulfilling their callings. Note to future self.... and to everyone.... If you have a calling, fulfill it, no matter how small. Even if it seems small, all the callings are essential. The calling of bishop is no more important that the calling of primary teacher or whatever. If everyone does their callings well, everything runs so smoothly... If not, then it is craziness.... Anyway, the ward here is great - they fulfill their callings. :)

Anyway, I get to work with Elder Veresoni. He is the greatest! He is from Fiji and is the only member in his strong Catholic family. He is solid. I look up to him. He is training me on how to be a Zone Leader. It is great. I am happy to be able to work with him.

We have been receiving a lot of training on setting goals and following through with them. Setting a goal automatically stimulates something in our mind that makes it so we strive to fulfill that goal. Cool, right? The very act of writing down a goal is a huge step to achieving the goal. Yep. I think that is amazing. Write down goals with the intent to achieve them.

Well, I am doing well. We get to lesson with people -- but not as much as I would like.... Lessons are the greatest. Being a zone leader is great because I am learning a lot! Learning how to help people without sounding preachy and how to stand strong in the rules and commands of the Lord (whether they came from the mouth of the Lord, the prophet, or our mission president) even when it is clearly the unpopular thing to do. I am grateful for the opportunity. It has shown me that I need to treasure every moment of teaching and finding. I am glad to be a missionary.

I read a quote by President Ezra Taft Benson this week and it told us that there are tons of "potential spiritual giants" that are not putting their all into the work. I like that thought. There are tons of spiritual giants in the world, they (or, I feel justified in saying we) just need to show it, work at it, and become the spiritual giants that Heavenly Father needs them (us) to be. We are all spiritual giants, whether we realize it or not. I hope that we can all work harder to be able to the spiritual giants that will help lift up those that have fallen or are falling. I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can become spiritual giants. If we try, fall, try again, repent and strive continually for excellence with a "perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all man" (2 Nephi 31:20), we can be gigantic supports for others without even realizing it.

I love you all and thank you all for supporting me through example, prayers, and all else. Love you! Keep on being amazing! Keep being lights to the world! Doubt not, fear not (Joshua 1:9) The Lord is on our side, what have we to fear? When we share our truth, we are only trying to help others return to their Heavenly Father. We really have no reason to rudely keep them from the truth by not letting them know where to find it. I hope I can more continually invite others to Christ, because He is real, and so is His atonement, and so is His Father, our Father. I know that the gospel of Christ is real and that if we "doubt our doubts before we doubt our faith", calling on the Lord to keep us from being tempted more that we are able, we will not fall.

Love you all!

Keep the faith!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Weenig