Week 56

Kia Ora Whanau

Well transfers are tomorrow and history is being made. I will be staying in Masterton with Sister Siale! This is history because this will be the second area that I've been in for 6 months and because this is the first time that I will be staying with a companion in an area. All my previous transfers I've gotten new companions. Also fun fact, my other 6 month area was in the same stake and zone so after this next transfer, I will have served about a year in the same stake/zone. I like to joke and say that I wasn't called to the New Zealand Wellington Mission, I was called to the New Zealand Hutt Valley Zone Mission. 

To be honest this week was a mental struggle. I was just so exhausted and I felt like I had done all I could for this area and I honestly was ready to be transferred. When I got the call that I was staying I was pretty disappointed and worried because this last week was a grind. I had a nice long chat with Heavenly Father where I told Him exactly how I was feeling and then I had to really humble myself. I had to choose to not be upset about it and make things hard on myself. I had fasted the week before that I would go exactly where I needed to go and so I knew that I must be needed in this area just a wee bit longer. It didn't make it any easier but in my head I knew that it must be right. I had a little flash back to my first semester at BYU where I knew in my head that I was in the right place but my pride caused me to make choices that made it really miserable. I decided that I'm not going to make that mistake again so for the last few days I've just been giving myself little pep talks as I bike/walk and doing a lot of positive thinking. I also fasted on Sunday that this next transfer would be great and now I'm feeling really good about it. I have a very firm testimony of the power of fasting. 

Anyways, some highlights from the week include finishing up all the service from our facebook add. Man it was so much service, I am all serviced out. At the end of the week, we messaged all the people we had done service for and invited them to learn more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and we had two people say yes! It was so awesome and definitely made that couple of weeks worth it. 

Ann, the lady who is getting baptized in December had a hard week. It so annoying that trials and afflictions always increase the closer people get to their baptism. But nothing good ever comes easy and getting baptized definitely falls into that category. We taught her about the Law of Chastity this week and man it was a struggle. She kept laughing and getting so shy about it. She had a friend over as well and the friend actually really got it and was helpful during the lesson. It was a funny first lesson to recieve from the missionaries though.

Part of what has been making things hard for Ann is just the stress of life, for example she is having a house inspection from her land lord this week and she had heaps of branches in the front of her yard that needed to be moved. So we rented a trailer and took them to the dump for her. The whole time we were helping her clean up her yard I just kept thinking "don't feed the deer hay." This is from a conference talk where a story about deer being fed hay and then still dying of starvation was told and I just kept thinking that what we were doing (moving the branches) was the best thing we could do. If we had told her to pray and rely on the Lord to strengthen her through her trials we would have been feeding her hay. By actually helping solve the source of a trial, we were making sure that her needs were actually being met. 

On Friday we got our monthly kilometer limit cut which is a struggle because our area is huge but we are thinking of taking the train between all the towns in our area which will be fun and a great way to meet new people. We also helped the Branch youth prepare a hangi for a fundraiser they were doing to pay for their FSY trip next year. So that was fun and very yummy.

Sunday we were in Masterton Ward for church and we saw miracles. There are two new people who aren't members of the church that have just started coming regularly and are both pretty keen so hopefully this week we will be able to work with them!

It was raining heaps on Sunday, like really pouring down. We were dumb and decided that the rain wasn't that bad so we biked to bishop's house. By the time we got there we were absolutely soaked from head to toe. They thought it was so crack up and gave us some dry clothes to wear while we put our wet ones in their dryer. It made for a good memory.

This week I would like to share two scriptures. The first is found in 2 Chronicals 15:4 which says "But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them." The second is found in Deuteronomy 4:29 which says "But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul." I love these verses because it teaches us how we can access God. If we seek Him through prayer with all of our energy (it's not necessarily going to be easy) then we will find him . It's simple. Not easy, but simple and oh so worth it. 

Ofa Atu

Sister Olson