Week 11

Kia Ora Whanau! 

I can't believe it's already Monday again! 

Last week was crazy, especially with Christmas. First of all I would like to request that you always feed the missionaries, especially on holidays, but that you do not over feed the missionaries because that is what happened to us on Christmas. On Christmas we were fed 4 times, and the other sisters that also serve in our ward got fed 5 times. We started out at a members home where they fed us breakfast. Included in this breakfast was toast, spaghetti, beans, poached eggs, bbq chicken, bacon, sausage, and island mayonnaise (basically fancy potato salad). Then they fed us dessert which consisted of trifle, pavlova, ice cream, and steamed pudding. It was delicious but honestly I would have been fine if that was our only meal that day. But it wasn't, from there we went to the Wilson's for brunch where there was pancakes, waffles, heaps of bbq meats, hashbrowns, and more dessert. From the Wilson's home, we went to another members home where they gave us a full tongan experience. There was fried fish, sausage, taro, otai, meat baked in taro leafs, and more dessert. After lunch I got to talk to my family!!! Man it was the best getting to see all of them and hear their voices again! I love my family. I didn't cry as much as I thought I would and it didn't make me homesick, so blessings. After skyping we went to a Samoan feed. I was so stuffed, it was so hard to eat more. The family we were having dinner with is super musical and so they sang us a ton of songs which was so beautiful. I realized that I wasn't home sick because the members here in the Hutt are so loving and generous and show us so much love. They really have become my family, and why would anyone be homesick when they are surrounded by people they love.

Wednesday when we woke up from a bad sleep, because we were so stuffed it was hard to sleep, we weren't even hungry. We taught the Nickles about the God head and each of thier roles. They were a little bit hesitant when we invited them to pray and ask God if what we were teaching is true because they believe slightly different things. But we were able to address some concerns and we got them to commit to praying. Wednesday also means the Wilson's!! This lesson was sooooooooo good!!! After they came to church last week, Sister Roil the Young Womens president told us she wanted to come to our next lesson, so she came along and was so key. She really connected well with them and started to build a good relationship with all of them. For dinner we did a hangi, which is basically a ton of meats and potaoes slow cooked in the ground. It's a Maori thing and really good. The lesson was really great! They really weren't getting that this is Christ's restored church on the earth today, so we did a couple of different things to help them understand. We did a object lesson where we likened Christ church to a plate and then we broke it and showed how we can fix the old plate and get it back exactly how it used to be, it has to be restored. Then we watched the restoration video with them. It was powerful. We testified of the restoration and got Sister Roil to bear testimony and the spirit was really strong. Jason closed with prayer and in his prayer he said that he knows it's true! Man it was so cool to hear that and see the immediate results of the spirit!

Thursday was probably the highlight of the week! On Thursday we met with Seiara and taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a really great lesson and at the end we invited her to be baptized and she said YES! So everyone get ready for the end of January! She was so excited. She really wants to get baptized and make this change in her life. The only obstacle is that her parents would like her to wait a little bit longer before she gets baptized so this next month we will be really working with her parents. Keep her in your prayers that we are able to get her parents on board because she is so golden and she wants this so so so bad. She is a literal miracle from Heavenly Father. I don't know why Sister Jones and I got so lucky to have the opportunity to teach her, but I am so grateful for it. Her enthusiasm for the gospel is so inspiring. Also I would like to point out to anyone reading this, but especially high school aged kids, that this all started because  she got invited to church by a friend. So please invite all your friends, and if they don't come just keep inviting them because you never know how life changing it could be!

The majority of Friday was taken up by weekly planning and dance practice. The Masima family in our ward are moving to Aukland in the new year and the ward hosted a surprise goodbye party on Friday night. They asked the missionaries to do a tongan siva (dance) so we had 2 days to learn a whole dance. Man that was hard but it was fun. The ward is going to miss them so much, they're a strong family. Friday night we started exchanges with Sister Tui'onetoa. 

Exchanges went really well. We met some interesting people that have huge misconceptions about the church. We got some interesting things yelled at us but it was all good. 

Sunday we had 3 investigators come to church which was so awesome! We also had another lesson with Seiara and we taught her about temples. She got so excited about temple work and eternal families. Man that lesson just made me miss temple. For those of you who live close to a temple, make sure you go ALL THE TIME. The temple is such a blessing so take advantage of it. There is so much strength and comfort that can be found by attending the temple. When I have hard days my first thought is how much I wish I could go to the temple, because there we will find the peace that we need. 

This week was a really good one. We did a mission wide fast on Sunday which was powerful. There is something really special knowing that you are united with so many others in the same cause.

My spiritual thought this week is about enduring to the end. It's something that really stood out to me in my studies this week. Enduring to the end is so important. It's the last principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ and honestly probably the hardest part of the gospel. There is a lot of things that are going to happen in our life that are going to hurt us and make us doubt or question and that's alright, it's totally normal in fact. The important part is that we doubt our doubts before we doubt our faith. In 1 Nephi 11:16-17 it says "16 And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God?

17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." 

Here Nephi is being asked if he knows why Christ came to earth and he replies saying that he doesn't know everything (I interpret this as him having questions and doubts and fears) but he then says that he does know that Christ and Heavenly Father loves each of us individually. To me this verse means that while we may have doubts and fears we need to make sure we always remember our basic testimony. Remember the things that we know to be true, like God is our loving Heavenly Father. Hold onto these things with everything you have and rely on the enabling power of the atonement to give you the strength to do so. Endure to the end. Do the little things because there is power in the little things. Read your Book of Mormon daily, pray often, go to church, do the little things. Even when it seems impossible, rely on the Lord because He knows you perfectly and He will take away your pains. But that's only possible of we endure and never let go of the faith we do have. 

I love you all so much! 

Ofa Atu 

Sister Olson 

I dont have very many pictures this week. The first one is our costume for the dance and the second is a selfie I took after hanging up on facetime because I always taking crying selfies lol. 

P.S. let me be the first one to say HAPPY NEW YEAR! Because New Zealand is one of the first countries to enter the new year lol.

Will this link work to see the dance?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EtKfds6jbo0AANSl3gQMrYenCHFFiVDh/view?usp=sharing