Week 6

Kia Ora whanau!

This week was good as usual. We had another exchange on Tuesday. Becuase Sister Petersen is a solo STL we have to do double the amount of exchanges because she has to do an exchange with every sister in our zone. Exchanges were good though. The real highlight of Tuesday, however, was after exchanges. My mission has started doing this thing with wards called ministering nights and man they are genius. Basiclly what happens is all the missionaries from the zone and all the members from one ward come together and the missionaries and bishopric of the the ward come up with a list of people to be visited and ministered to. Then the missionaries split off with the ward membrs and they all go and visit 2-3 people and share the message or invitation that the Bishop comes up with. It is so genius because 60 plus people get visited in one night and the results are insane. I high key encourage all wards to do this. So Tuesday night was ministering night in my ward. The ward I'm in is so strong and into member missionary work its the best. The work is not successful when the ward is not supporting it so I'm grateful that this ward is 100% on board with it. It makes me feel bad about not being a better member missionay and giving missionaries more refferals when I was back home. But I'll repent and do better when I get back.

Wednesday we had district council in the morning and Sister Soloai (mission presidents wife) came to do a little presentation. She did it right at the beginning of the meeting and then left as soon as she was done. She didn't even say goodbye lol. Her message was on the training she received at mission president conference a few weeks earlier. The training was on a new booklet made specfically for pacific island missions on how to be healthy and not get fat lolol. She told us that she's already spoken to the members and told them to start feeding us healthier and to stop making us sweet drinks like otai. So basically she showed up to tell us to not get fat and then left. It was so funny. If anyone cares about what we look like when we leave our mission it's Sister Soloai lol.

Wednesday we also did this massive service project and cleaned out this house for a family. It was so dirty and took basically all day to clean. I volunteered to mow the lawn (which hadn't been touched all spring so the grass was tall and thick) and it took a solid couple of hours to do. I may or may not have gotten some heat stroke from doing that so I was not feeling to great afterwards, but the service was good and the family was so grateful so it's all worth it. After service we had choir and then our weekly appointment with the Wilsons. Sister Petersen and I both felt like we needed a better idea of where the family was at so we planned to do a mini testimony meeting. We watched President Nelson's speicial witness of Christ (bless technology) and then we all bore our testimonies. It was really powerful and we were able to get a better idea of their needs. 

After the Wilsons I was so wrecked. We got home and I fell asleep so fast. Sister Petersen texted a YSA in our ward and asked if she could  bring me some powerade and man, Tiola (the ysa) is so loyal she showed up and brought me heaps of stuff to help me get better. (This is my plug for supporting the missionaries).  Thursday I couldn't get up, I was so wrecked, so we stayed in and I slept basically all day. I just kept praying I would get better so I could go do the work but all day I was destroyed. During my bedtime prayer I asked to be better the next day because I didn't want to waste anymore time and man oh man the Lord answers prayers because the next morning I was back to 100%. 

Friday was a good day we got a lot done and we helped set up for the Interfaith Christmas devotional that the ward was hosting the next day. Saturday was crazy because it was Interfaith day. We spent so much time making sure everything was set up and making sure the people we're teaching were coming. The event was so successful. We had 4 other churches join us and we all performed Christmas numbers. 446 people came. So many potentials and investigators came. The Wilsons came which was so great and Farrah even sang in the ward choir with us. We gave Family Proclomations to the leaders of all the churches and advertised Light The World a ton. After the program we had a huge feast. I mean huge! We fed all 446 people and there were still left overs. One family provided 4 pigs! While people were eating all the missionaries mingled and we got so many refferals and met a ton of potentials. It was great! The spirit was definitely there and it touched the hearts of so many people. 

Sunday was really good as usual. During Relief Society the  healthy eating announcement was made and Sister Fale said that she had already told Sister Soloai that she was not okay with this change and that "No she is wrong, the sweet drinks help the missionaries, and help them have energy to be better missionaries." The ward is a little bit pushing back but they're slowly adjusting. After church we got to teach one of our newer investigators, Zaid. He is so golden but we have to take things slow becuse his english isn't the best and he has a muslim background so all the stuff we teach is brand new. We taught him about the characteristics of God and how He has a body of flesh and bone. The lesson went alot like Ammon's lesson to King Lamoni in Alma 18. He was pretty shocked that God has a body and isn't just a great spirit. We committed him to pray and ask God if He really does have a body and he said he would. Zaid is so golden. It'll take some time to teach him because we really have to teach one principle at a time but I have no doubt that he'll accept the gospel. He said something that really struck me. He said "we must remember God because God remembers us." This is so true. God remembers and knows each of us and we need to remember Him know all that we do so that we can return to live with Him again. Everyone please pray that the Book of Mormon gets translated into arabic soon because Zaid can't read english very well so he tries to read the Book of Mormon but he says he doesn't understand anything. 

On Sunday we also got to do alot of ministering to the sisters in our ward. Man they all have such hard lives but they keep pushing through and relying on the Lord. They are such great examples.  

To wrap up this week's email I have two thoughts. The first is about Light The World! December is next Saturday (crazy) and the church is kicking off light the world with a world wide service day on December 1. So plan on doing some service on Saturday. Also watch the Light the World videos. They are so powerful and really capture the spirit of Christmas. I cried like a baby when watching them. Light the World is a little different this year and requires a little more effort on your part so look up how it's working and make plans to do it. 

The second thought is really what I've come to learn and appreciate this week. I have really been humbled and come to have more of a broken heart and contrite spirit this week. In my training, Sister Petersen and I are studying chapter 6 of preach my gospel, it's all about Christlike attributes. As we were studying I came to realize how inadequate we all are. We are not even close to being even kind of good enough. We are all so far from perfect. We are so far from it that we can't even comprehend what perfect is. To many this can be discouraging, but it really shouldn't be because Christ was perfect and He gave us a perfect atonement. Because of this we can be perfected through Christ's mercy and grace. There is so much hope because of Christ. I just really came to appreciate Him more this week. I highly suggest that everyone reads chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel because it will help you become a better disciple and will also help you be more appreciative of Christ and His sacrafice. 

That was another long email, but I'm not even sorry lolol. I love you all and I hope you all go to church and come to know Christ because through Him and His atonement all things in life that are unfair can be made fair. 

Ofa Atu (love you in tongan)

Love Sister Olson

Sister Petersen, Elder Rowling's, and Sister Mamea

Western Hutt Ward sister missionaries at Interfaith

Me, Sister Petersen, and Sister Roil (Sister Roil was "looking good tonight" so she wanted to take a selfie)