Connor's New Christmas T-shirt..."You Serious Clark?"
Hey there Friends and Family!So this last week was a tough one, not going to lie! Elder Marquina continues to have a lot of issues with his feet and we have literally done a solid 30 hours of traveling these past two changes! Needless to say, Elder Marquina is pretty much sick and tired of his feet. We have made a solid 2-hour trip to Las Condes approximately 15 times over the past 12 weeks. That's 2 hours there and 2 hours back.We'll see how the changes meeting goes tomorrow, but it's going to be interesting. I'm really learning to have a lot of patience and charity. I knew when I got to Villa Sur that it was going to be hard for multiple reasons, but this past week everything kind of just piled on top of Elder Marquina and I. It's moments like that where you just learn to depend completely on your relationship with your Savior and prayer is the only way to go.
Sadly, I am one who likes to talk things out to get problems resolved and Elder Marquina is not. We finally had a long talk! This kid is a huge example for me, and I know he is going to bless a ton of lives here in Chile and after his mission. He just kept asking,"Elder Weaver, si estoy haciendo lo que debo hacer, por qué Dios quiere castigarme?"( If I’m doing what I should be doing, why would God punish me?) I think this is a question all of us have asked at one point or another. It's a question that's tricky to answer. When we're doing everything we should be doing and we're trying our best just to deal with the trials we have, why doesn't God just put His hand in things and alleviate our pain?My answer is this... there is always something to learn from every trial. Elder Marquina may never heal in his feet. For the rest of his life he may have this problem, but I am 100 percent certain that he will bless the lives of many here in Chile and even more after his missionary service because he will have the experiences necessary to properly deal with future issues that may arise. Whether that is within his family, in his ward, or with friends... he will bless the life of somebody.I try my best to relate everything I can to the scriptures, but sometimes the best thing we can give to others is our own stories and our own experiences. Elder Cook said in a conference with the mission presidents of Chile..."Your missionaries not only deliver the message, THEY ARE THE MESSAGE!" Everything we do, everything we say is literally scripture and we are the light of the world! I am so happy to be a representative of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love this gospel; I know it's true because I've put it into practice in my life. What I say, what I do, is scripture and it is what Christ would say if he were here right now. My only hope is that I do Him justice.All I can say is that we work hard because we owe it to our Savior to work hard. We don't work hard so that we can look good in front of everyone else.I love all of you and thank you so much for the support and love! I Love this Christmas time of year where we think of our Savior and His birth! I love sharing this message during this time even more!Love,Elder Weaver
