Monday, July 31, 2017

My Home is My Newcastle (Newcastle Strikes Back!)



Hello everybody! Sorry it's been so long since I wrote an email!!

Since I last wrote I've been transferred from Berea! I'm serving again in my first area, Newcastle!! In the mission, we refer to a missionary's first area as his "birth area" and his last as his "dying area". I was born and I'm dying in Newcastle!!  My new companion is Elder Mathamsanqa Moyo from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and he's a superstar! He's been on mission for 6 months and he's an incredible missionary! I love that he cares so much about the work and that he really desires to be obedient! We get along great! 

It was hard to leave Berea, but it's been wonderful serving in Newcastle again!! I learned so much in Berea. Elder Jones and I were released from our assignment and he is training a new missionary! I'm so grateful for the experiences I had in Berea! I know that the Lord built me up and molded me by His Spirit into the man that He wants me to be! 

When I told the bishopric that I was leaving, Bishop Reabow said "WHAT! I can't sustain that. I need to talk to your mission president!" hahaha I have loved working with him so much, I can proudly say that I did the finest member missionary work of my whole mission in Berea. We saw so much growth in the members and in the ward as a whole, I pray that they might stay changed and stay missionary work focused! 

Going from Berea to Newcastle was quite the jump. I went from 200 sacrament attendance to 65 hahaha. It's good to be back in a branch. I feel like I've come home, the members have received us so well! I'm surprised that everybody remembered my name! Throughout my mission I always wished that I had been better at working with members when I served here, and now I get the chance to come back and do it! We've spent lots of time tracting and teaching members and less actives this week, all in search of the Lord's elect (Doctrine and Covenants 29:7)! We've seen miracles as we have!! 

a few examples:

We planned to go tracting in an area called Fairleigh the other day, but as we were driving there, we didn't feel right about it. So we pulled over and prayed for guidance, we felt impressed to go tract another area and we found several potential investigators, including two father led families!! 

This weekend we taught a counselor in the branch presidency and his family and we asked for referrals, he gave us the information for his less active brothers and sisters. Yesterday we had an hour an felt that we should go visit one of them. We only had time to visit one, so choosing the right person was imperative. Elder Moyo prompted revelation when he asked "Who do you feel we should go to?". When he did I sought for the Spirit and felt strongly that we ought to call one of his sisters. So we did! And they let us come over. During our visit we were blessed with three things:
1. We met her sister and brother in law who are expecting their second son. Her sister is a genius when it comes to the Bible. We shared with her the Book of Mormon and invited her to learn more of the restored gospel! 
2. We found that she and her husband have not been to the temple and that they desire to go!
3. She told us that her kids have been begging to go back to church and to be baptized!! She said that they've been praying to go back. We made a return appointment to teach them and prepare them for baptism! 
(4. They invited us over for lunch so they can make us authentic indian food)
Throughout the visit I felt so strongly that this family was prepared to come back to Church at this time! I know that we were directed by the Lord as an answer to prayers! I'm SO excited to see them progress! 

I'm writing this long email and I hope it makes up for the lack of others. 

The Lord is anxious to see His work go forward, and when we counsel with him and put ourselves in place to do something, the windows of Heaven open and we receive His direction. 

Last week we spent a day with all the new missionaries coming into the mission (14 of them!) and I did my best to teach them that "this is the Lord's work and we do it His way." I know that this is true and I know that miracles have not ceased! The Restoration of the gospel is rolling forth and ours is the responsibility to make it known unto all the inhabitants of the Earth! How great is our calling!

I love you all and I pray that the Spirit may guide you to those who are in need of your testimony.

--

Elder Weiler


    Before transfers, we woke up early and watched the sunrise at the beach with a senior couple!




           Elder Jones and I also climbed the Drakensberg Mountains with President Thompson!

Monday, July 10, 2017

Blessed Beyond Belief!




                                        Exchange with Elder Mnisi from South Africa!

Wow, time is FLYING over here. I can't believe how fast this transfer with Elder Jones is going.  It's been an INCREDIBLE transfer and I'm learning so much about myself and about the Lord and His work. I've said it a million times, and I'm going to say it again, but I never cease to be amazed at the growth and the knowledge that I've accumulated throughout my mission. There's so much more to life than what we see right now, physically. There's so much that can't be know until we look heavenward and seek inspiration.

I wish I could summarize all the blessings and miracles that we've seen but I can only write but an hundredth part of them! These past few weeks have been spectacular!! 

George Q Cannon once said "above all it is most important that a man know himself". I've been fascinated by that quote since the day I read it. On mission I have sought to come to really know myself. Recently I've been privileged to learn about myself. I've been able to establish patterns of what makes me feel good and what makes me feel chaos, what makes me upset, how I can feel better, etc. It's been really uplifting and a blessing to our companionship! 

OH BOY THE WORK HERE IS MILK AND HONEY. Elder Jones and I have been struggling the past week or two because it seems like our investigators keep dropping off the face of the Earth. We struggled a lot with discouragement and disappointment. The other night, we sat down and laid out our plans, we plead for guidance, and searched for things we can do to improve. Mosiah 2:24 says "he (the Lord) doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you" I KNOW THAT'S TRUE because the next day we found so many new investigators and so many powerful people who are prepared for the gospel! This whole weekend has been the same! We ended up finding 12 new investigators in a few days! We had two families and three other individuals come to church yesterday! I wish I had time to write about every person we're teaching because they're all so incredible! 

Yesterday we walked somewhere between 3-4 miles to church with some investigators who can't afford public transport and we had a great time! We sang hymns and greeted EVERYONE along the way! It was awesome! 

All in all, I'm doing so great. The Lord is so good. I'm so grateful to be on mission and to have these sacred experiences, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! 

Church is true!!

--
Elder Weiler
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

South Africa Durban Mission
                                                               Downtown Durban
                   The district, eating schwarmas (Durban is the Celestial kingdom for Indian food!!)
The mission is getting a new range of bakkies (trucks) called Ford Rangers are they're soooo nice.
 This is Mayville, a township outside of Durban that we do a lot of work it. We call it "Mayville of Dreams"
                 Elder Jones and I found sushi and it was the best day ever. It's been two years...