Week 51

Kia Ora Whanau! 

Okay this week was a roller coaster but it was good and we saw the hand of the Lord. 

So on Monday, we had to wake up really early in the morning and drive 1.75 hours to Tawa, where Sister Tapumanaia had her self reliance course before she went home. So I spent the day with Sister Bailey, being her companion. It was super fun, but I'll be honest I just had so much stress over the fact that Sister Tapumanaia was going home. It just made me so sad. I hate changes and I hate saying goodbye to people I love. 

Anyways, on Tuesday was intake day, so all the new missionaries came to the mission office for orientation  and met their trainers! My trainee is Sister Siale and she is from Tonga. She is so incredible and onto it, I am so blessed to be her companion! I love training, the new missionaries are always so special and throughout the week I have been able to tell that she is exactly the companion that I need at this point on my mission. She is such a blessing.

I said goodbye to Sister Tapumania on Tuesday which was so sad. I wish you all could have gotten to meet her, she and I just clicked and had so much fun together and worked so hard. It was really the dream and I love her so much. But, mission life, you have to keep on working and I am so grateful to be blessed with Sister Siale who is equally as incredible. (Also Sister Siale gave me the nuggets compliment of life, she said that I may be palangi, but I have an island heart!)

Wednesday we spent most of it introducing Sister Siale to people. We had a lesson with our investigator Ann and I was so impressed with Sister Siales testimony and ability to teach. Ann has a desire to be baptized and so hopefully this week we will be able to put her on date! 

Thursday was more introducing people to Sister Siale.  But then this transfer, President Soloai decided to do something different and so we had two sessions of Zone conference, one Thursday night and one Friday morning. Zone confernece was so good as always. I felt very inspired with how I can improve my missionary work, and the importance of making sure you are converted yourself and that you have a strong testimony before you go out and try to help others have spiritual experiences to grow and strengthen their testimony. 

Friday morning was another good session of zone confernece! We did some role play teaching in front of everyone. I volunteered us to go up and teach in front of everyone which Sister Siale handled like a champ. She is such a powerful teacher and she was so incredible! I was so proud of her, and afterwards she was so excited that she had just done it, it was awesome.

After zone conference, we went back to our STL's flat because I had discovered in the middle of our teaching during zone confernece that Sister Siale had head lice. She apparently got it while in the MTC so we spent literally hours combing through her hair and everyone else's hair and treating it to make sure no one had it. She has got the longest and thickest most beautiful polynesian hair, but it made it a project to comb through. Luckily she was the only one with lice, and we got it all out. Man only on the mission. 

Saturday was a busy missionary day. One of the people we are teaching is pregnant and she had her gender reveal party that we went to and helped out at. It was so long though, that we left before they even did the actual reveal. We biked in the pouring rain and got absolutely soaked. We then went to visit some people that we just recently started teaching. I wasnt sure what to expect going into their house, I lowkey thought that they were going to be super wishy washy about it, but I was so wrong! They had read the book of mormon like we had invited them to, they had recognized the way they had been blessed by doing it and through our prayers. It was so exciting. The coolest part though is I had some impressions about what we should talk to then about, but I never had the chance to share them with Sister Siale, but she is just so inspired that before I knew it, she was teaching about and testifying of the exact things I felt we needed to! It was so cool. The spirit was definitely present that night and both Judith and Steve committed to pray daily and read more in the book of mormon! It was such a cool experience. 

On Sunday we had fast and testimony meeting. We went to the branch which was so crack up especially for Sister Siale, having her first Sunday on the mission be in the branch. It was just some typical branch stuff, for example no piano so we all sang really off key. But the cool part was that you still felt Gods love for them and you felt the strength of their testimonies and their dedication to the gospel. 

This week I just want to share a quote from the Prophet, President Nelson. He said "No one can ever take away a witness borne to your heart and mind about what is true." I love this quote because it is simple and clear. If you do your part and allow yourself to be in a position where the spirit can testify of truth to you, and if you work to recognize those promptings and impressions and witness, then no matter what happens, no matter what trials come to you, you will be able to get through it because the spirit itself had witnessed to you of the truth.

Ofa Atu

Sister Olson 

Photos:

- Two out of my four mission daughters (Sister Hutia, the oldest, and Sister Siale, the youngest)

- Going through peoples hair for lice (not my braids so I dont get any...blessing of tongan companions is they can all braid super well!)

-Sister Siale's first day proselyting 

-Me and Sister Tapumanaia 💕😭

 - matchy matchy

- teaching the new sisters how to do a pukana