Week 19: HOOOOLA!! 9/12/2022

Howdy everybody! How was your week!? I hope this email finds you all well back home!!

Things are going well down in Argentina!! The weather is heating up right now so I am dying right now hahah! I am getting some crazy weird tan lines with my church shirts and my bracelets I wear hahah.

Well there have been some changes!! Elder Weston left us and went to Cordoba to train, so it is not a trio anymore! I am with Elder Alvarenga still and now we are just covering Catamarca. We received two missionaries here named Elder Duarte and Elder Lazo, Elder Duarte has 22 months on the mission and Elder Lazo has about a year. They are covering the Ambato area together.

For us we have 4 people on date to be baptized in Catamarca! Miqueas, Alejandro, Lautaro, and Ana. Miqueas is 12 years old and his step dad is from Idaho, and is in the bishopric here. Alejandro lives like 6 hours away, but he is committed to coming to church on the bus every sunday! Lautaro is the nephew of Manuel Maijá and he is 10, hahaha he doesn't understand a word that comes out of my mouth hahaha. Ana is what we call a Grey dot, which means a missionary stopped teaching her in the past for a reason for example she was not interested or something like that. But I was calling Grey dots one day and she was one, she said she was waiting for us to call her. We put her on date during the call!

Well I got some pictures to send ya'll too! Love ya'll! I hope you all have a wonderful week and don't forget to send me emails and texts during the week! 

Love, Elder Weese

Pictures:

1-4. On our way to Zone Conference with Elder Walker from the seventy.

5.  Haircuts for zone conference

6.  Colectivo ride

7.  Zone Conference

8.  Churri pán!!

9.  Elder Alvarenga

10. Last Day with Elder Weston

11-13.  Happy Birthday Elder Duarte!!

Week 18: Lost in the work! 9/5/2022

Hello everybody!! How are my favorite people doing!? I hope that this email finds you well and safe back home!!

Well this week was absolutely wild as you can tell by the title hahaha!! This week we had so much to do! I cannot remember if I explained how I am in a trio with the Elders that serve in the Ambato area of my mission. So with that being said, I have two areas now! I am still serving in the Catamarca Centro area and now I have the Ambato area which is south of the Centro area. Working in 2 areas is absolutely wild! Especially with 2 Elders that love to work as well!!!

Throughout the week we spent a lot of time in Ambato. I am learning a lot of the Ambato area and getting to know the investigators, ward members, and the leaders. It has been fun doing that! We have definitely been seeing the Lords hand in the work which has been absolutely wonderful. It is wonderful because the biggest thing you learn on the mission is that you are absolutely nothing without the Lord. It is vital to always seek His heavenly help! 

We had a baptism on Saturday!!! WHOOOOO! The girl's name is Brisa Gomez! She is pretty incredible! She loves reading the Book of mormon and every single time we go to her house she always has scriptures that she likes to share with us, or has questions about verses for us. The Book of mormon absolutely works miracles people!! I can say that without a doubt in my mind!!! Literally if you want to find peace, if you want to change the way you think, if you want to invite more positivity in your life, I suggest that you read the Book of mormon. The Holy Ghost will be so strong in your hearts, and you will feel it. I PROMISE!!!

Other than that baptism, we put 3 people on date this week so that puts us at 7 dates I think. So we have been extremely busy teaching them and staying in contact with them! I wish you could all experience the joy of the feeling that you get when you put somebody on date to be baptized. When you have been teaching them all this doctrine, where you teach them about Jesus Christ and how He has made a way for us to follow. Then you ask them if they will follow their Savior and be baptized in His name, you can literally see the spirit hit them. It changes lives!!

Other than the dates we have a lot of people we are teaching! We literally have 40 or 50 people that we are teaching right now! So yes hahah we have no time to do anything else but work! But that is what I was called to do, and the Lord right now is giving me opportunities to magnify my calling. I promise the saying that you all hear a lot, "Getting lost in the work" is a real thing! It is when you have nothing to think about but the people. It is when you are serving with all your heart, might, mind and strength! It is definitely a hard thing to do! I can honestly say that the mission has been the hardest thing that I have ever done, but oh my goodness the life lessons I have learned have been beautiful. These people out here are changing me! They are making me see myself as a better person, they are helping me see my Savior's hand in my life. So when the days are hard, I have that to rely on! 

I have fallen in love with these people! They are my family! I would take any of them in when they need it!

I have a little message to share to people who are deciding to serve a mission, are about to go, or don't know whether they want to or not. I promise that this decision is the best decision you can make! You will grow so close to your Savior and you will learn what it means to rely on Him! You will love the people, wherever you are called to serve! Heavenly Father knew where you would go, He knew who your companions would be, He knew all of that before you even existed! Wherever you get called to serve is YOUR holy ground! There are people waiting for you, they need you! I know that you all have hit the requirements to serve! You are all worthy to serve the Lord, I just know it!! 

So with that being said I invite you to pray about your mission, whether you have the call, are waiting, or are still deciding. Pray to Heavenly Father about your mission! I can promise you that you will feel the Holy Ghost touch your heart! And you will KNOW that this is EXACTLY what you should be doing!

Well I love you all! I have many pictures to send you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Weese

Pictures:

1.  The Trio 

2.  Brisa's baptism!!

3-6. My companions & I doing the grind!!

Week 17: What A Way To End A Transfer!! 8/29/2022

Hello everybody! I hope this email finds you well back home!!! 

My goodness what a week it was!! It was the last week of transfer two so now I am on transfer three so I am officially out of training now! How crazy is that right?? Well I have some miracles to talk about, then I will tell you about the transfer news!

Camila and Alejandra were both baptized this weekend!! I will never forget it! Camila is my first baptism!! Elder Scott baptized Alejandra!! It was a crazy week just making sure everything for them was perfect for the baptism, their feelings, their thoughts, everything! They have to be the most prepared people I have met for a baptism! They have worked really hard for it and I am so happy for them and am extremely lucky to have been able to participate with them on their special day! I will never forget the light in Camilas eyes, when she got to the church she kept saying how nervous she was and I promised her that she would feel different. Right after I pulled her up out of the water I could see a light in her eyes and she said how she was not nervous anymore at all! That has to be the best part of the missionary work is seeing them just glow after baptism!!! I have plenty of pictures of that day to send to you all!

Yesterday I confirmed Alejandra a member of the church in sacrament meeting. You guys know me, so you know how nervous I was and how stressed I was about it because I wanted her to be able to just have a BEAUTIFUL experience. It was incredible how the spirit guided me during that prayer to say the things I needed to say. After I said amen she stood up and said, "Caliente!" Ahahah she could feel the Holy Ghost enter into her heart! 

Those were definitely the highlights of everything honestly!!! It is a beautiful thing to be a part of, to help these people make covenants with God and see the love He has for them!!

Well transfer news!!!

I am still in Catamarca!! Elder Scott went to Cordoba which was REALLY hard! I couldn't have asked for a better trainer than Elder Scott. He put up with my crap for 2 transfers! He never forgot to encourage me when times were hard, and always mentioned how much he loved me. He is going to kill it in Cordoba!!

Heres the crazy part to this news! I am now in a trio with Elder Weston and Elder Alvarenga! They are Elders who live with us who cover the Ambato area of Catamarca! So now we have two areas to cover together hahah!! We are going to be very busy this transfer! It will be a great transfer for sure!!

Spiritual Thought

Well the mission is definitely a place where you grow so much spiritually! I have had so many miracles that I cannot deny, I have had so many spiritual awakenings. That is my thought for you! Always hold on to the feelings of the spirit! It enables us to be happy when times are hard, and makes it easier when the doubts come in! I can tell all of you that you are all worthy to feel the love from God through His holy spirit. God has a plan for you, and wants nothing less than your happiness! Don't let the devil tell you otherwise! The devil is getting craftier and craftier with his work but you all have the power to push the devil aways and to invite the good! So do me a favor and give Satan a punch in the mouth this week!!

I love you all and will be sending you some pictures!!

Don't forget to email me!! I love hearing from you!

Love, Elder Weese

Pictures:

1-2.  Baptism of Alejandra Vega

3-5.  Baptism of Camila Rivero

6-10. Exchanges with our ZL Elder Marshall

11-14. My Home!! (Catamarca, Argentina)

15-19. Goodbye to Elder Scott 

20. My new comp Elder Weston!

21. Elder Alvarengo to complete the trio!!