Week 19

Kia Ora Whanau

This week was long but also really fast. Summer is coming to an end here and it' starting to rain again. It's sad but also really nice because it's making the cicadas quiet.

This week from Monday night to Tuesday night I had an exchange with Sister Tauru. It's the first exchange of the transfer which is so bad becuase the transfer is alomost over, but everytime we schedule an exchange people get sick so we've had to postpone it so much. It was a really awesome exchange though. It was super fun and we accomplished a lot. We taught Jenny about the Plan of Salvation and she is slowly starting to remember why she had a desire to be baptised 2 years ago. Hopefully we can keep the progression going! We also did some service and we had our ward ministering night which is always such a positive. It was really cool to get to work with Sister Tauru because we came out together and when we left the MTC she was so quiet and her English was still at the begginning stages, but it's so so so good! The gift of tongues is so real. It was super cool to her how well her English has gotten and it was fun to get to spend more time with her since I haven't spent heaps of time wih her since the MTC.

Wednesday was a day where I learned a big lessson. So we got a new person to teach on Wednesday, Chris, which is really awesome but how we got him to let us teach him is where I learned my lesson. So about two months ago, Sister Jones and I were trying to contact a refferal and she wasn't home, but her flat mate, Chris, was home and he swore at us hard out. Anyways as we kept coming back to teach the refferal we had the opportunity to talk to Chris and eventually gave him a Book of Mormon. On Wednesday we stopped by to meet with Jill, she wasn't avaliable but Chris was and he said he would love to talk to us and learn more. So we started teaching Chris and at the end of the lesson we set a return appointment for the next day! So from this experience I learned that through consistant positive interactions, all people will eventually recognize the truth of the gospel and be inclined to learn more about it. In chapter 9 of Preach my Gospel it says that often, people won't recognize us as servants of the Lord right away.This was for sure the case with Chris, but the spirit works miracles and he is now starting to recognize us for who we are.

Wednesday night, we had dinner with the Wilsons and then our lesson with Michael. The lesson was not super great because the rest of the family was not being respectful of our lesson so they were making heaps of noise in the kitchen, and at one point they even came into the lesson and interrupted and gave us some food they had packed up for us. So that was frustrating. We will have to find a different time to teach Michael so the spirit can be there better.

On Friday we got the opportunity to do service at Te Matatini, the giant Kapa Haka festival competition. We stood at the doors to the stadium and told people when they could and could not enter the stadium. We got yelled at a decent amount because people were really mad that they couldn't go in during the performances. It was really cool though because we got to watch for free all day. Each performance was about 20 minutes long which was so crazy becuase they were so elaborate. It was cool though to get to talk to a ton of people though and to get to experience some more of the Maori culture.

We had stake conference this weekend and Elder Sinjoux of the area presidency came. He's from Tahiti and we have the Tahitian missionaries in the stake tight now so that was cool. It was really good. One thing that was said that really hit me was how King Benjamin was talking to righteous people about how they need to improve. I think it's really good reminder that everyone needs so consistantly strive to do better and become more like Christ.

A few highlights from Sunday is our lesson with Chris and With Ieremia. We taught Chris about the Plan of Salvation and as we taught him you could see things starting to click for him which was cool. When Sister Hutia and I were about half way through the lesson that we had planned I got a very direct a specific impression that it was time to end the lesson. At that point the lesson was going really well so it was a weird thought to have, but about 2 minutes later Chris started to get distracted so we wrapped up the lesson and set a time for us to come back and finish. It was cool to have that impression though, because it is just more proof that the Lord is very aware of each of us, especially when we are doing His work.

We also taught Ieremia about the Plan of Salvation and it was soooooooo good! He is a really shy person but you could tell he was really grateful to be learning more about the gospel and how God has a perfect plan designed to bring us happiness. I was so excited about the lesson because after over 4 months of trying to have the opportunity to teach him about the Plan of Salvation, the time finally came. It was well worth the wait. The lesson is that you sometimes have to be patient, consistent, and patient.

That was my week. My spiritual thought is just about how important Jesus Christ is. In Preach my Gospel it says over and over again that the atonement of Jesus Christ is central to God's plan and it's so true. Nothing would be possible if it weren't for His atoning sacrifice. Because of this, we must all come to know Christ. President Soloai always says that you know you have had a successful mission if at the end of it you really know Christ, not just know about Him. When you know about Christ, you do your best to be like Him. As you strive to do as Christ did, you will find greater peace and happiness. So I challenge everyone to study more about Christ and continue to come to know Him personally, not just know about Him.

Ofa Atu

Sister Olson