Finding and Teaching

Sista Sellesin in our area

This week started off with family house night over at Mama Vero's.  She's the Relief Society president and so it was good to spend the time talking with her and her daughter.  They both are converts to the church and both have been married and later abandoned by their husbands.  They are incredible women who have been through a lot, and know where to turn when things get tough.  One thing we talked about was visiting teaching.  From what it sounds like, Mama Vero has been taking it upon herself to visit every sista in the ward every month and share a message with them. .  . so I explained how visiting teaching is supposed to work and she seemed to really like the idea of pairing sistas up and giving each pair two or three sistas to visit.  We plan on talking to the Bishop at ward council this Wednesday and setting up visiting teaching assignments.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Visiting teaching and home teaching do so much for members and especially recent converts.  I hope that once we get this started it will help with our mission goal to get the members more involved in missionary work and fellowshipping. 

Sista Sellesin and I have been working hard to find new investigators this week.  We made a plan to dedicate Wednesday to just finding new people.  We decided we wouldn’t go back home until we had either handed out 4 Buk Blong Mormons (copies of the Book of Mormon) or 20 pass-along cards.  We prayed to know what to do and decided to stand on a street corner and just talk with everyone.  Dad would be proud to know we handed out all 20 pass-along cards and set up 5 appointments, 3 of which we visited on Saturday and gave them the first discussion!!  All 3 are Papas too!  Their names are Peter, Eric and Freddy.  Eric has one small girl and a wife and said that he wants to know what all the people in yellow shirts teach (Helping Hands service after Cyclone Pam).  He was very interested and said he would come to church on Sunday. . . he didn't, but we'll keep on trying.  Freddy asked us specifically to help him and “his woman” as they prepare to get married later this year.  It was actually super fun and Sista Sellesin and I made a goal to devote one hour every week just to finding.  Maybe next week we'll try dancing and holding signs to get people's attention!

Family House Night with little Sariah

Friday we had the “leavers dinner” (those leaving after completing their full-time missions) at the mission home.  Elda Tempany, Elda Card, Elda Tupo and Sista Povori are all going home this week and it makes me soooo sad!!  I love all of them and the mission is going to miss them heaps!  Leaver's dinners are always a neat experience because all the missionaries going home get to share their testimony and any scriptures that have impacted them while serving their missions.  I love to learn from the scriptures they share and apply it to my mission right now.    

I had a neat experience at church yesterday.  At the beginning of the program, the bishop asked a married couple who had just returned from going to the temple in Fiji to share their experience.  Both the Mama and the Papa came up and bore powerful testimony of the importance of the temple and the ordinances that take place inside its walls.  The papa ended by inviting EVERYONE to make it a goal to go to the temple.  He said that no matter the sacrifice, it is worth it, and the Lord will provide a way.  It just made me so thankful for the chance that I have to live so close to so many temples in Utah.  I never realized how blessed I was to be able to go so often until I came here and have to go for 18 months without attending the temple.  For those of you back at home, GO TO THE TEMPLE!!   If you don't have a recommend, get one!!  Just like the papa said, the sacrifice is worth it.  My love for the temple continues to grow as I learn more and more about it.  We are so very blessed!

Sonia is scheduled for baptism on the 6th of February and we were able to help her mom with a few issues as well this week.  It taught me a lesson on really helping and knowing my investigators better.  They are children of God, not just a number and we have been sent to help them and improve their lives through the gospel.  The gospel makes EVERYTHING better!!

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the cold!  I love you all.