Bula Vinaka, kemudou kece! This week we had a lot of great experiences, so I'll try and remember them all so I can share them with you all.
On Tuesday we had quite the adventure. We had a Zone Meeting in the morning, and got back to our area in the afternoon. We did some quick studies and planning for the day, and headed out to an area called ‘Delainivesi' I'd been there once before on our split a few weeks ago, and so we were going back to one of the houses that we had knocked on. So, we took the bus to the bottom of a hill and started to walk up…we didn't think it would be that far. As we started to walk, spirits were high, we were laughing and talking. About 20 minutes later, we were slowly stopping our conversation and we were starting to get a little confused. I kept saying, “Oh yeah, the house should be up here soon” ONE HOUR LATER WE FOUND THE HOUSE! HAHAHA! Now we look back and laugh, but as it was happening, we were sooo tired and the next day we were quite sore from the uphill walk. But finally we found the house, and actually had a really great lesson. I remember we had been praying the whole time, "We hope she's there, please let her be at home" because it would have been really disappointing to have hiked one whole hour, and then found an empty house. But she was there. Our prayers were answered! She had a lot of great questions, and was especially interested in the fact that this gospel can help families. The teachings of this gospel give a strong foundation to build families on, and that's exaclty what our investigator is looking for right now. Hopefully we can continue to help her find truth and peace in this restored gospel.
We also had a really great day on Wednesday. We were able to sit down with so many of our less actives, and 3 of them even came to church on Sunday. SCORE! But we had the chance to sit down with one of our less actives earlier that morning. We had said a prayer to ask Heavenly Father to lead us to the people that needed us that day. and boy did our sweet Sister need us in that very moment. We went to her house and shared a spiritual thought about enduring to the end and she said, "I know I need to come back to church.” And then she started to talk about how things are difficult at home with her family, and we spent the next little while reminding her of how much our Father in Heaven loves her, no matter what has happened. Nothing can take us away from the love of Christ! I think sometimes that's one of the big reasons that people fall away from the church because they forget how much our Savior loves them. All we have to do is remind them! :)
On Thursday, we had the sweet privilege of hearing from Elder Pearson, a member of the Seventy. (Shout out to my Jeru-homie Matt Pearson- Your dad is so cool!) He's in the Area Presidency over the Pacific area, and we were able to hear from him on Thursday morning and afternoon. He gave GREAT insights, and I am so excited to go back over all my notes that I took and study them. His main focus was on how we as missionaries need to do and be better than we are right now. He said, "The Bretheren envisioned an EXPLOSION of people joining the church when they lowered the missionary age.” And he is so right! As missionaries, we need to be trying to teach with power and with the Spirit, to help touch the hearts of those that we are teaching because nothing can be done if the Spirit is not there. No matter what we say, if the Spirit isn't with us in our teaching, the people won't hear the language of the gospel.
The rest of the week was really great too. We were able to see lots of our investigators, and a few of them even came to church on Sunday. We are hoping to help prepare some of them for baptism before the year is over, so we'll see how that goes. With this Christmas season coming up, we have the opportunity to share about the Birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. How lucky are we to bring these good tidings of great joy around the world. And not just the missionaries with name badges can do this. You can do this from your very home! And don't forget with this season coming up, missionaries are far from their homes, so make sure to feed them extra, and give them lots of Christmas lovin! (That means you too, Bishop Trammell! :) )
Anyways, I hope all is well at home. I hope everyone is getting their Christmas decorations up, but never forget the true meaning of this season! Countdown - 16 days til the celebration of our Savior's birth! :)
Loloma Levu,
Sister Trammell
Kara and Elder Pearson
Kara and Sister Aoina at their Zone Meeting
