Oh my goodness, I can not BELIEVE it's Christmas!!!! This is odd.....I'm in denial..........ANYHOO, SO, this week was INSANE and I just HAVE to tell y'all about it!
1.) We dropped off my trunky companion at the airport and she is now safely home in St. George and spending Christmas with her family. The next day we picked up my new companion Sis. Marshall and she is SOOOO bomb! She's awesome! She's from California (Ventura County, 1/2 hr out of LA) and we're lighting Kihei on fire!
2.) 2 of the Elders from my La'ie zone transferred in so now it's just a party all the time. We totally have the best zone in the mission...just saying....
3.) The other day we were flipping through the ward list and I decided to randomly visit this family because I didn't know them and they were less active. SO, we went and when we got there it ended up literally being an answer to the wife's prayers. Her uncle just died last month, their family is super struggling financially, and just everything is going wrong and she was completely feeling abandoned by Heavenly Father because she was saying she couldn't feel the spirit (side note, that tends to happen when you stop going to church, reading your scriptures and praying). So we told her straight up that she HAS to go to church if she wants to get through all this craziness and that OBVIOUSLY God loves her and has NOT abandoned her because he sent 2 crazy sister missionaries over to her door. *Bam!* Things clicked in her brain. She was at church on Sunday looking awesome and happy and let me tell you it made the world of difference that we were there and I'm just so grateful I was worthy enough for Heavenly Father to work though me and send me to the right person at the right time.
4.) SAME thing happened with this guy in our ward too. He's less active, his girlfriend and kids aren't members and he's been going though an INSANE rough time. Except, things happened even more coincidentally. As in, junk happened the day before! So we talked with him for a bit and got to hold his Chameleons (fact: no idea the males had horns, those things are FREAKY, but WAY cool) and then we said a prayer with him. Totally didn't think I was being divinely inspired or anything, but obviously what I said was what he needed to hear because all of the sudden he broke down crying and told us all that had been going on and he KNEW it wasn't a coincidence that we just showed up right after it happened. Seriously, Heavenly Father is awesome and he really DOES care for us!
5.) So the DAY Sis. Marshall (also known as Sis. Marshmallow, and I as Sis. Brownie - named by some kids in our ward :P) arrived on island, Sis. Mawae called to tell us her daughter wants to start taking the lessons and wants to be a convert...............yeah, I know, right? Unbelievable!!!! SO, Thursday comes around and we have a little pre-lesson, lesson with her and just get to know and she is the coolest, most awesome girl I've ever met! So her brother was the 1st one in their family to convert and then a year later went on his mission. A few months later, BOTH his parents are baptized and become members. Now, a little over a year later, Kanoe (the daughter) was talking to her dad and he told her he'd one day love to be sealed as a family. And it just hit her hard core, and so she wanted to find out for herself if this really was true. Cuz she had already seen HUGE changes in her brother and then seeing her dad change SO much because of the gospel she just knew there was something to it. So now that we've officially been teaching her for 4 days......SHE'S GETTING BAPTIZED DECEMBER 29TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO EXCITING!!!! And the driving force? She wants it to be a surprise for her dad so NO one can know she's being taught by us because she doesn't want it to get around to her dad. How AWESOME is that??? She's been reading the Book of Mormon EVERY day, and she's been praying and EVERY time she has questions, even if it's super late at night (ok, for US it's super late, like midnight) she'll call US and makes sure what other people are telling her isn't true. She trusts us so much and she's been able to feel the spirit SO strong! Her own words: "so, what counts as a testimony? Can I just say that I got my testimony when I was praying that one time for like 30 minutes and felt so good was my testimony or do I have to use the experience when I had that bad dream and I grabbed the Book of Mormon and read it and I felt peace? Or do I have to use something else?" Oh my goodness this girl is amazing! AND we were invited over to dinner with her family last night (so we had to pretend we didn't know her and were just now meeting her :P) and we shared this spiritual thought about how Santa Claus is in the bible (Zachariah 1:6, 8 and 11) and I got the WHOLE family saying, "BAM!".....it was legit....now everytime they see us they go, "BAM!". Life is great and I'm SO pumped about Kanoe's baptism! She's SO prepared and she is so hungry to learn as much as she can! I love this girl! Oh, and she's only 19! She's just my fav :)
6.) We had a lesson with Berd, (the Micronesian who was just baptized :)) and we taught him about the Priesthood and I'm pretty sure it was the best lesson about the Priesthood I've EVER had. NOT because of my teaching skills by any means, but because of him. So we teach him about the Aaronic Priesthood and how he'll be able to baptized and we read that scripture in Alma 13:3, and how he was "foreordained" to hold the Priesthood. Meaning, before he came to Earth Heavenly Father prepared him to receive this amazing responsibility and authority. And he, LOVED it. He says, (in a Micronesian accent) "Oh! You know, I have always wonder why I here. And now, you tell me! I am FOREORDAINED! I gonna BAPTIZE!! Oh! I am SO excited about this!" Oh my goodness, seriously, I've never met anyone so stoked about receiving the Priesthood before! He is so excited to teach his friends about the gospel and then baptize them! He is just the greatest and it was awesome because we told him how great of a responsibility it was to have the priesthood and how he HAD to make sure he was reading every day and praying and he was just like, "oh! I WILL! I will NEVER forget! This is SO exciting!" hahahahaha I love this guy! Anyhoo, I wish everyone receiving the Priesthood could have his outlook.
7.) We've had Christmas presents sitting under our tree for DAYS now and it's killing me. I wasn't raised to stare at Christmas presents. Those things never popped out of hiding until not a creature was stirring on the night before Christmas! So needless to say this is new to me.
8.) Oh, and I'm officially betrothed to our investigator's son.....he's from Chuke......and apparently has always wanted to marry a Hauli, and apparently he's decided on me.......and apparently his brother is gonna marry us because he's a Catholic priest........yes, yes it was a very weird conversation.....yes, yes our investigator and his son and the priest were very drunk......and no, no I will never forget it. So yeah, just letting you know, to all those potential suitors out there, I'm taken...apparently....:P
9.) OH! And I went to a Tongan baptism on Saturday and it was seriously like the best experience of my life! EVERYTHING was in Tongan and it was literally JUST like something out of the movie The Other Side of Heaven! They even sung my favorite hymn! Let Us All Press On! IN TONGAN!!!! And the people being baptize were this REALLY old couple who had been investigating the church for over 40 years and all their kids and grandkids were members except them. And it was just BEAUTIFUL. Their sons baptized them, and they BOTH had to help the dad get baptized because he need a walker and so he had to be lowered into the water. I'm surprised they were able to do it in 1 try! SO AMAZING!!!! I'll never forget it! :D
10.) Last but not least. WE'RE ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!! The world didn't end on 12/21/12! Well that's a huge relief ;) hahahaha
Anyhoo, I love you all SO much! And I hope you have an AWESOME Christmas!!!!! Gift Christ the best gift you can give! MISSIONARY WORK!!!! Work hard! Pray always!
love,
Sis. Bradley
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