Malo Everybody! This is Elder Record. Today is the 22nd of January 2012, and I was just thinking about it. In February we are going to have a leap day. So this is a leap year. So, I'm going to have to do something special (haha) on the 29th – make it an awesome day. Just because that day won't exist for another four years. Anyway, it's kind of fun (haha).
I love the new Bible videos they are coming out with. They just came out with the story of the Widow's Mite.
This week was pretty awesome. We are
getting ready for a baptism for one of our investigators. She is a
little girl, she's nine. She is very smart. She remembers a lot of
what we teach her. Her mother is less active, and her cousins, so her
mother's family are all in our ward. Some of them are active and some
of them are less active. They are the Aumafa family. We love the
Aumafa families in our ward. They are so nice to us. They always feed
us. If we ever need anything, they are always there. So we've been
teaching her and it's kind of been exciting. A little bit stressful
though, because it's my first time. I haven't really seen how a
baptism goes, so I've kind of gone by the books and how people have
said how to proceed through a baptism. It's been good (haha). It's
going to be combined with her cousin who's family is active. They are
going to get all their family and less active family, hopefully, out
to the baptism. We are very excited about that, and it will be coming
up this Saturday. It's pretty set – everything is a go so far.
There are still some things we need to finalize, but we are very
excited about that.
We had another good lesson with one of
our investigators this week. We taught her the second lesson, the
Plan of Salvation. She has so many good questions. It's so good,
because if you go into the lesson with a prayer, so you have to pray
before for the Spirit, and go in sincere, doing your best to teach
out of love and feel love for that person and feel the Spirit, the
lesson goes so well. We were talking with her, and the gospel is so
awesome, because there is always an answer. So, she was throwing out
questions (haha), and we had answers (haha). She is growing. She
really good, and we are expecting her to be baptized soon. She is not
on date for baptism, but we are expecting she will feel the Spirit,
and that she will feel the gospel is true, just like we feel it. We
are excited for her and the progress she will make. We didn't get all
the way through the
Plan of Salvation – we kind of stopped at the
atonement. We talked a bit about other things, and we will go
over the second half of the lesson next time, and finish answering
her questions.
The ward really likes us. We are able
to teach quite a few of people. There are quite a few less active
people, but it feels good to strengthen them. We were able to go to
the hospital and visit one of the less active members, the wife's
father. He had a stroke, so we were able to go to the hospital and
visit them. In the Samoan culture, if the missionaries show up, they
have a great respect for the missionaries, so if the missionaries
show up – you know we're not doing too much, we're just showing up
– it means a lot to them. We showed up and said hi and talked and
found out the father, who had the stroke, knows Elder Leota's father
and his uncles (haha), and his whole family (haha). So they had a
good time talking and it was good. They requested a blessing, so we
gave him a blessing. I think things will go really well.
The work is good. It's stressful at
times (haha), but it's so much fun. We're busy, busy, busy. I'm
thankful for the gospel. I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to
serve the Lord. I'm learning so much about patience. I'm learning so
much about life and how to work with people. I didn't realize that
before my mission I kind of … not really kept to myself, just
surrounded myself with good people. I didn't realize how much I
didn't … anyway just all the people and personalities I'm around
now are people I've never really been around. So, I'm learning a lot
(haha) on how to associate with people. It's so good.
I'm still staying healthy. Healthy and
strong, and exercising every morning. I'm doing my best to eat my
vegetables, taking my vitamins (haha). I'm doing good. I hope
everything is well at home. I am thankful for all the support
everyone gives. I'm excited for next week and P-day tomorrow. It will
be a good time to exercise some more.
Anyway, I hope everyone is well and reads
their scriptures
this week, and the
Book of Mormon. I promise that it will bless your lives and you
will feel the strength that comes from it – even if it's hard. We
don't always get things from the scriptures. I know a lot of times in
the morning I will try to read my scriptures or study, and sometimes
I'm tired. So things just go in and straight out, and I don't really
remember too much of what happened. But it still strengthens me, and
I still receive spiritual strength for the day when I read my
scriptures. It totally makes a difference. I felt it when that
strength hasn't been there. So when I just skip out or read something
else or take a nap (haha) – I've done that occasionally, I'll
admit. I know that when we read the scriptures, whether we understand
it or not, we receive strength from it, and gradually we come to
understand it as we keep doing our best. I know that is true, and say
that in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
See you all later, Tolofa Soifua.
Filoai. That means “until we meet again.” See you later.
Love, Elder Record
No comments:
Post a Comment