Finding a Gold Mine!

Our district activity last Monday in Fanafol

So I'll start all the way back at last Monday!  Right after emailing I went with my district of 14 to Fanafol (a small village about an hour away) to go on a hike for a district activity.  Sista Manly, Rivera and I had previously been on the hike and were able to get us to the destination, a cave, within an hour. We then had the chance to play volleyball and play with the pikinini for a few hours before we had to head back so that we could be back at home before dark.  A few of the missionaries thought we should take another route back because we were running out of time and so we decided to follow them. . . even though they had never been to Fanafol before. . . we ended up getting lost and walking through the bush until we came to a water pipe.  We were able to follow the water pipe to a small village and the people there were able to direct us back to where our bus was waiting.  It was a miracle that we found the pipe and were able to get home before dark!  God was watching over us for sure!

We had exchanges this week and I was able to work with Sista Rivera in my old area, Second Canal.  It was really fun to see my old investigators and friends there.  Sista Rivera is a great sista and never fails to teach me something.  

Zone training with all the trainers and trainees

The rest of the week Sista Ouamambare and I spent working hard in the area.  We were able to find and teach 14 new investigators!  This week we are hoping to find 20.  Our area is full of people, but they haven't been reached out to.  Another major problem we are finding with our area is that it is an hour’s walk from the church.  This means people have to sacrifice either financially to pay for a taxi to go and come with money that they don't have, or walk an hour to church and another hour back.  We've talked with the branch about this problem and they have stressed the importance of helping our investigators realize that they need to sacrifice some things in order to gain other things of more importance.  All the members in Showground are solid and I really believe it is because they sacrifice so much to be part of this church.  On that note, yesterday in church the topic was sacrifice.  We had three wonderful talks about sacrifice.  One was given by Sista Terahati (the district president's wife), another by Mama Jocelin and another by one papa.  They all had amazing stories they shared and I learned so much.  We have so, so much and are so blessed, yet sometimes we fail to recognize our blessings.  I am going to work on recognizing them and thanking my Heavenly Father more often!

This morning I was reading in Alma chapter 8.  This is when Alma tries to teach, but the people reject him.  He prays and even "wrestles" with the Lord to soften the hearts of the people so that he can "baptize them unto repentance," but their hearts are strong and he seems to get nowhere.  He leaves the city but an angel appears to him, comforting him and then telling him to go back and teach again.  Alma immediately turns around and goes in by another way to teach once more.  He finds Amulek and is successful in teaching the people.  This morning the part about "entering in by another way" jumped out to me.  Sometimes we try the same tactics over and over again and pray that they will work.  We need to ask God for His point of view and then try it His way.  That's when miracles happen.  This applies to missionary work, personal issues and many other things.  We need to TRUST the Lord and His timing.  His thoughts truly are higher than our thoughts!  I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Giant spiders of Vanuatu