Week 23

Kia Ora Whanau

This week flew. They are always fast but for some reason this week was extra fast. 

So this week we weeded a garden for a nice young couple who had their property inspection coming up. We've been trying to get into their home for a while now to share a message with them but they just had a baby so they've been crazy busy. So we did some service for them a) because that's what Chrsit would do, but also b) because we were hoping that doing some service would help us have the opportunity to share the gospel with them. We spent a few hours on it (it's a pretty big garden) and while we were weeding, Sister Crichton found some hedge trimmers and started to cut dead branches off plants. She got a little carried away though and cut down 3 perfectly healthy plants. When I asked her what she was thinking she said "I wanted it to look nice." Man she was so fiapoko (samoan word for thinking you know better when you don't). Anyways, after we finished we asked if we could come in and share a message and they said they were too busy. We asked when a better time would be for us to come and they said they weren't sure because they are just so busy. So we didn't get to share a message which was disappointing. As we were walking away, Sister Crichton pointed to the spot where she cut the plants down and she said "I guess that's what they get for not letting us share a message." Man it was so funny but at the same time I was like Soa, you've got to think sometimes before you do something haha. 

We got a few new people to teach this week! On Wednesday, we started teaching a less active and her family. She wants to be able to go to the temple with her family so we will be working with them to help them achieve that goal. They are Samoan and so Sister Crichton is so awesome because she can really connect with them and use her language skills. On Thursday, we contacted a potential named Hong. When she opened the door she was so excited and happy to see us because some previous sisters had done some service for her. She immediately let us in and started talking to us. She doesn't speak much English but with the help of google translate we were able to communicate with her and talk to her about Heavenly Father and how he loves all of us. On Saturday we started teaching a lady named Sarah, who is a former investigator and she says she wants to get baptized, she just needs some support. So that was really exciting! 

On Thursday, we went to contact a potential and she wasn't home, but her family was. Her sister had just had a baby and he was very unsettled so they asked if we could come in and pray for the baby. So we went and prayed for him and then told them about the priesthood and how the baby could get a blessing if they were interested. They were very keen so next week they are going to contact us. Hopefully we will be able to start teaching them. 

We had some good lessons with the people we are teaching this week. We finally got to teach Ieremia again! He is way more comfortable with Samoan and can understand it a lot better so he asked if we could teach him in Samoan. So sister Crichton taught the entire lesson and I prayed silently the entire time that she would have the spirit and say the things that would touch Ieremia's heart. At the end of the lesson, he told Sister Crichton (in Samoan) that he wants to be baptized eventually, so next lesson hopefully we can set a date with him. We had a good lesson with Daniel too. He told us that if we can help him overcome a few concerns, he would get baptized as well! We also had a lesson with Seiara. She's  doing really well and I think we are making some progress with her being able to be baptized sooner rather than later. 

On Sunday, we went to Daniel's house to make sure he was coming to church and he told us he didn't sleep well that night so he wasn't sure he was going to come. I told him to pray about it and ask if Heavenly Father thinks that he needed to go. He said he would but then said "but what if he says I don't need to go?" I looked him right in the eyes and just said "I know that he won't say that" then we walked away and said we will see him at church. Both he and his less active wife came to church and stayed for the whole time! It was so awesome! 

My spititual thought this week comes from 3 Nephi 9:13 which says: "O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?" I thought it was really interesting that there is a question mark at the end of this verse. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are big on agency. They will never force anything on us even if it is good. They wait for our permission. In order to be healed by the atonement, we have to give Christ permission. We have to show him that we are allowing him to heal us. We do this through our actions. As we strive to be like Christ, we are giving him permission to come and heal us and help us actually become like him. We all have been given the gift of agency, and Heavenly Father is waiting anxiously to bless us, but we must first use our agency to choose to be healed. 

Ofa Atu

Sister Olson