Clay and Fakalele

Hello family & friends! I hope you have all had an amazing week!

This has been such an amazing week. So much revelation, so much self examination (YAY MY FAVORITE), and heaps of growth for me, my companion and the area.

This week, I really tried to keep the commitment I have made with myself to seek and listen to the promptings of the spirit.  And I have come to the conclusion that the spirit really has PLENTY to say if we will listen. 

"Don't hit snooze. You don't need to sleep till 6:30 if you're already awake. Take more time to pray."

"Stop the car. There's someone for you to talk too here."

"Your studies will be better if you wipe down the kitchen counters first."

"Cross the road and go talk to her. Teach about how infants don't need to be baptised. She lost someone."

"Yeah, I know you planned to eat dinner now but you're not done in this part of the area. Keep knocking until you find a new investigator."

To be honest, at first I didn't know how to feel about my still, small friend speaking up. I may have even thought "What have I gotten myself into?" hahah. But each time I was asked to do something, the same spirit that prompted me softened my heart and reminded me of my desire to be righteous. And then, when I obeyed, an overwhelming feeling of joy would wash over me. Like can't-stop-singing-can't-wipe-this-smile-off-my-face kind of joy. 

Submitting yourself to the Lord is the only way you can come home at the end of the day and feel like you've come as close as you can to living that day the way the Saviour would have. True obedience is true happiness.

All week long, I have repeated my "ponderize" scripture in my head whenever I received a prompting: "And now, O Lord, thou art [my] Father, [I am] the clay, and thou [my] potter, and [I am] the work of thy hands." - Isaiah 64:8.

This is my goal, to be clay in the hands of a perfect, loving, Father who sees my potential and sees what these people need me to be. To be worthy to receive the promptings of the spirit and obedient enough to listen. To be humble enough to accept His will and diligent enough to do it. No matter the cost. No matter how unpleasant, uncomfortable, or unfamiliar, please listen to the promptings of the spirit. The reward is far greater than the sacrifice. 

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." -Mosiah 3:19 (p.s. this is what I'll be ponderizing this week)

If you do not have a burning desire to take on this challenge to put off the natural man, please pray earnestly to gain that desire and give everything you have. I can promise that there is no time to waste. Becoming submissive by yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit is a lifelong quest. You cannot start too early, and you are probably already late. Please pray for a vision for how you can improve on this!

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS!

-Trade offs! I loved spending my day with the cutie, kiwi (New Zealander), Sister Going. She's also half mexican which is a strange miracle because the lack of hispanics here is pretty devastating. So we spent the day speaking baby spanish to each other (because here it's such a rarity to know even the very basic Spanish that Americans all learn in school), and talking to lots of beautiful people! We also talked a lot about what I can be doing to help the ward. Such a wonderful learning day!

-Studying has become my favorite thing in the world. I can hardly rip myself away from the scriptures and PMG. Two hours a day is definitely not enough.

-Increase of the spirit = Increase of effective finding. We were able to find so many wonderful people in so many random places this week.

-Increase of the spirit = Bolder teaching and crazy promised blessings haha. We had so many amazing lessons with our investigators this week. And as we taught them really relying on the spirit, we were able to overcome concerns and promise some really excited blessing that were definitely spirit led. 

-Watching my companion grow has been so amazing. Sister Eteaki is really developing into such an incredible missionary. Her determination to be obedient is so wonderful! She is spirit led and so humble. I am so lucky to get to be companions with her! 

-Jack the miracle! We had an amazing experience finding Jack by listening to the spirit. We were shocked when we knocked on his door and were welcomed in to meet him and his wife and talk about the Restoration of the Gospel. Also he is so cool because he's French from a little island outside of Madagascar. He has amazing faith in Christ and is a beautiful person! So excited to teach him more about the gospel. 

-Weekly lowlight: Our investigator who was getting so close to baptism dropped us. Satan is so strong. It really threw us off for a moment. After he called us, we just prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help us understand what we needed to do. After praying, I opened my scriptures which fell open to 3 Nephi 11. We know he is ready and that if we seek to understand Heavenly Father's will for him and work hard, he will be baptized. 

(Selfie because I took no pictures this week...)

-I forgot to tell ya'll that I took Sis. Eteaki to the doctor (no worries all is well, just a check up and she passed with flying colors). But the nurse was asking her if she had any diarrhea and she was like "What?" and she said it again and Sis.E. repeated "What?!" And I go "oh she means fakalele." And we crack up because the nurse looks at me so weird and why do I even know that word in Tongan in the first place hahahaa. 

-And the best weekly highlight of all!!!!!: my beloved Grandpa got baptized. No words can express how happy I have felt thinking of my Grandpa making this covenant with our Heavenly Father. I know with all my heart that the plan of salvation is real and that baptism is necessary to enter into the kingdom of God. So much joy!

Well, I love you all HEAPS! Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help any of you. You are all in my prayers.

Have a great week!

Ofa atu,

SF