Week 36

Kia Ora Whanau!

Last Monday night we had a really awesome family home evening with two of the people we are teaching and some members. The spirit led the night and it was great to see everyone building closer relationships. Having ward members build close relationship with people you are teaching is so essential in missionary work so if the missionaries ever ask for you help, say yes!

Wednesday was a great day. It was really productive. We went with a member to visit a less active sister and the related so well to each other. Sometimes all a person needs is a friend. They may not come right away, but as you consistantly minister to them, they will come. We also visited a less active couple and they said they want to go to the templ as soon as possible so we will be working with them to help strengthen them and prepare them to enter the house of the Lord. I get so excited when we talk about temples because I know how sacred and powerful they are. 

On Thursday we met some more just golden  people! Their names are Leka and Tracy, and are a refferal from Sister Soloai. They live out on a farm and when we got to their house, they were across the highway in the field working. They noticed us as we were walking across the road to them and Leka turned on his chain saw and started cutting apart a tree and Tracy came over to talk to us. Leka low key was trying to avoid us (he's a less active memeber), but Tracy was so excited to see us. We talked and talked and eventually got Leka to turn the chain saw off and talk to us too. Tracy said she has been wanting to go to church for forever and said that as soon as they go back to their regular jobs in July that she will do her best to get Leka to come to church with her. She was so keen to learn more about the gospel and they said we could stop by anytime. So we will be going back this week to start teaching Tracy and helping them both come closer to Christ!

On Friday we were all sick with food poisoning (we think). That was no fun lol.

Saturday we were mostly better and we had an appointment with the family that we found last week, Paulo and Pamela. They had invited us over for lunch at 1pm but they started cooking at 1pm so we didnt actually eat till 3:30pm. After dinner we taught them the restoration and you could see it all clicking together for Pamela. She kept asking questions and sharing how she felt about it, it was so cool. Paulo was a little less enthused, and even kinda fell asleep, but Pamela was not okay with him missing out on this message so she kept him involved. By the end of the lesson Pamela and Paulo both shared that they have had negative experiences with religion in the past and have put up some walls because of it but they are willing to try and take them down and read the book of mormon and pray about it. They said that if they have a revelatory experience and God tells them it's true, then they will come to church. We were so pumped because we know that Heavenly Father will tell them it's true!

Fun fact: my trainer Sister Petersen got married on Saturday so that's wild! Super happy for her but also it makes me feel old in the mission to have a trainer who has been home long enough to be married lol. 

Ofa Atu

Sister Olson 

Pictures:

- food poisoning is the worst

- it was Sister Tu'i'onetoa's birthday on Friday so we celebrated at district council

- we contacted a refferal on Wednesday morning and while we were visiting with them, one of the family members left, came back and cooked us breakfast... not an unusual thing to happen

- another example of food being brought out for us when we come around for a visit... this time home made bread... it's a daily occurrence

Also Spiritual thought for the week! 

This one comes from Sister Becky Craven's general conference talk 'Careful vs Casual'. 

"There is a careful way and a casual way to do everything, including living the gospel. As we consider our commitment to the Savior, are we careful or casual? Because of our mortal nature, don’t we sometimes rationalize our behavior, at times referring to our actions as being in the gray, or mixing good with something that’s not so good? Anytime we say, “however,” “except,” or “but” when it applies to following the counsel of our prophet leaders or living the gospel carefully, we are in fact saying, “That counsel does not apply to me.” We can rationalize all we want, but the fact is, there is not a right way to do the wrong thing!....Being careful in living the gospel does not necessarily mean being formal or stuffy. What it does mean is being appropriate in our thoughts and behavior as disciples of Jesus Christ."

I love this because I think we could all live the gospel a little more carefully. I know for me sometimes I try to justify the little things and say "well in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter". The interesting thing about saying that is that if I choose to live casually then in the grand scheme of things it will matter because it will cause me to move farther away from Heavenly Father. However, if I choose to live carefully and not do something that I have to justify, in the grand scheme of things, it's not going to matter to me that I had to give up or not do something because I will be close to my Heavenly Father.