Email from 10/31/11

So I guess this email was intended for someone else because no one named Eric exists in this email account. So the girl is 16, her mom was there and is used to her passing out because sheºs had that problem for a while. And maybe I wonºt need to write in the ward newsletter anymore because we have more missionaries moving into the ward. Maybe Iºm safe for the rest of my mission. Anyway one of our recent converts´ brothers and his 2 nephews got baptized this week so that was fun. And in the end of our lesson when we were praying the 14 year old asked heavenly father to take his mother "out of that church" that she is very faithful to. So that was really funny. So funny that I almost laughed during his prayer. Anyway, I set up that gmail account a LONG time ago and it is still active so donºt worry about it. Well Iºm going to try and upload some photos because I havenºt done that in a while so I just end by saying I love you all and Iºm still alive and itºs still super hot here.

E.Weiss

10/24/11

I don't know how you didn't think that an apostle could fill 45 min. Silly that's his job. To talk in exactly the right amount of time that God needed him to. Anywho we've had a really long and tiring week. On Monday we went to one of our investigators house who has heart problems because we had an appointment marked with her. We went by one of her friends who's a member to see if she could teach with us and her friend told us that she had been really sick that day and didn't go to school and she didn't think that we would be able to talk with her. I felt like we needed to anyways and told her we'd only be about 5 min. That we would just teach about the priesthood and offer a blessing then leave. She said ok so we went to her house and we walked in and she was laying on her bed. We asked if we could talk for a little bit and she said yes. So we started with a prayer and not even 15 seconds into our lesson she passed out. Elder Cuestas and I didn't know what it was so we stood up and gave her a blessing and then she woke back up again. She was crying and in a lot of pain and not even 3 min later she passed out again. This happened continually throughout the night. We stayed there for about 2 hours just sitting there so she wouldn't have to be alone. Her friend had to keep waking her up by putting an onion under her nose and breaking a piece of it so the smell would wake her. We just stayed there and prayed and prayed for her and I knew we were not alone in that room. There was more than the 5 of us physical beings in that room. And I know that our investigator knew that as well. At 9ish we called the branch missionary leader to come over and stay with her and we found out that he had already been doing that every night this week. He and his wife came over and we said a prayer and left. We went back the next day to see how she was and she was walking around that day. We taught her a little bit and she only passed out once in the time we were there. I then went back a few hours later with another Elder so she could get interviewed for baptism. He went in and interviewed her and she was fine to be baptized. She was planning on going to praia on Friday so I told her we were planning on having her baptism tomorrow (Thursday). She said "oh actually the plan has changed and I'm going to praia tomorrow" So I asked, do you have time to be baptized right now? She said yes and we ended up organizing a baptismal service in a half hour. Filling the font and everything (which filling the font usually takes 3 hours). It was one of the best baptismal services I've ever been too complete with the young womens president the branch mission leader and all of her closest friends. They were amazing for her and they made that day incredible for her. She got baptized confirmed and everything and then she just stayed with her friends. We went by her the next day and we were about to knock on her door when we saw her across the street playing with her neighbors kids. She was a completely different person and she looked like she had never had that heart problem before. I know miracles do happen today. She is living proof. Her friends that supported her are that proof. And how her baptism changed her is proof. God really does have power over everything. And everything goes according to his will and plan. I love my mission and I'm grateful that God trusted me enough to send me to help one of his children in dire need.
love
Elder Weiss

Email from 10/17/11

And yes you did call me a vampire. Anywho yes members investigators non-investigator/members dogs cats mice everyone had it. And yes we may be missionaries, but they were sisters. 'Nough said. And it's not just stuff from their house but stuff from the other house that we are still shutting down. And the reason that question hasn't been answered is because you've never asked it. So the primary is primary. Same as anywhere else in the world they throw all the demons into one room with one or two teachers and lock the door. And the yw and ym presidency is made up of yw and ym. They don't have the different organizations like deacons teachers priests beehive maimaids laurels but they all just meet together. And all the materials we get for everything church related comes from Germany. Why does the name Gardner sound so familiar? Do we already have Gardners in our ward or stake?
Once in Elder Cuestas last area where he was branch president the person was talking and the district president got up and asked him to sit down and finished his talk for him. The other happened here. We have a deport from America who has mental problems because of drug abuse and stuff like that and he used to come to church all the time but he would never stay for sacrament meeting because one time during Fast and testimony meeting he got up and the pulpit and started talking about the government being corrupt and they had to call the police to get him to live. So it was once again fast Sunday and e. cuestas saw him standing up to go to the pulpit so he walked quickly up to the pulpit and motioned for the guy to sit down before he even got to the stand and then bore his testimony. So yeah apostasy is rampant everywhere. Well anywho we've had a really busy week filled with shutting down houses and traveling and airline prices doubling because one of the 2 airlines here failed so it's been a really tiring week. We did have another baptism this week. It's hard to keep you up to date on all of that because I'm busy thinking about other stuff but we have consecutively had a baptism for the past 9 weeks now. My goal is at least one a week for the rest of my mission and I made that goal about 9 weeks ago so yay for being blessed. Well anywho be good, don't drink the water unless it's the sacrament water, and stay out of trouble and don't preach false doctrine over the pulpit or you might get struck down.
Love
e.Weiss

Email from 10/10/11

ola! So I'm still here in the same areas with Elder Cuestas but what is not going to be as fun we will be having 6 Elders live in our house now. Bleh. That's a lot of people in one house that isn't big enough for 6. So we spent the whole day rearranging the whole house and the thing that is not so fun is we have all the things from the sisters house because they got takenen out 2 transfers ago. And now another area got closed in our Zone so we have to go take EVERYTHING from their house also and we don't have space for it. Not fun. But what was good was this Saturday we had 3 more baptisms. and we should be having another one this Saturday. Um so yes I did hear Steve died. Dad told me all about it. Sounds like the world is really upset about that one. Didn't he make an app to cure cancer though? Dad also told me about Brother Arnell. And it does sound like you were a little upset about me getting pink eye calling me a vampire and everything. and for the record the eyes only hurt for 2 days. And I don't remember if I told you but the 2nd day I had pink eye I also got the flu haha. Life's fun. And yes we did get eye drops that burned when you put them in. Then our nurse called us a day later and told us that it's a virus not a bacteria thing so the drops were useless. and yes we all went out and worked with pink eye since everyone else already has/had it here. Except when I had the flu I couldn't really work that day. But we just put on sunglasses and went out and worked. Elder Heurta called us the FBI.
Well anywho other than me going to be annoyed with a really messy house for the next while nothing else is new. Love you all and we have family night in a little bit so got to go!
e.weiss

Email from 10/3/11

So here's some fun news that I know mothers love to hear. Last Tues I got pink eye! WHOOOO I'm so cool. oh in both eyes by the way. And the day after I had the flu! WHOOO even more amazing. But everythings fine now. There was a huge pink eye epidemic here and 8 of the missionaries on our island had it or currently have it. Me and Cuestas both have it in both eyes. Fun stuff. And so we had to take pictures of it and send it to our mission nurse, who ended up sending it to the area doctor in Germany who, after calling us, sent the photos to SLC. So basically were famous in the medical world now. But we had conference this week! It was a really great session of conference and I wish we had the Liahona now so we could read it. But we probably won't get it till December because the nov. issue of the liahona is the conference and it usually gets here a month late and if I'm still on this island then it will probably get delayed another month because they're terrible at sending stuff out.
I don't really want any packages after Christmas. I'd rather have you save the money for a massage when I get home :D.
Well anywho conference was a really good way to end the week and there were a lot of good talks. I liked packers talk and sister thompson's about receive revelation. Good stuff. Well anywho I'm really tired because we played soccer this morning and woke up at 5:30 so I'll end my email. LOVE YOU!
e.weiss