Ia ora na!
This will be a little short, because again it's been a little
bit of a less active week. First of all, life is good with Elder Teihotu. He's a
good comp and very diligent, a good teacher as well. Thanks to him I've been
able to pinpoint some of my weaknesses and become a more effective missionary.
I'll start off with some good things to say before i mention
the difficulties. We found a new investigator this week, who is the aunt of our
other investigator C-. Her name is H-, and she lives with an inactive
member named T-. They have 7 crazy, savage little children who are totally
hilarious. H- loves going to church with T-.and some of the kids, and
she has seen the spiritual difference between this church and some others.
She and T- have such a desire to change, so much that they even scheduled
their marriage in February. She wants to be baptized, plain and simple! But the
thing with her is, she has family opposition... that same grandmother of
C- that i mentioned in the last email? Yeah, that's H-'s mom. Shes already threatened H- that, because H-and T- live on family property, they will be rejected and thrown out in the
streets if she's baptized. And because they'll be thrown out in the
streets, H-'s mom will call the social services and say that
there are children living out in the streets. After that, she'll take their
children. H-and T-.know that will happen, cuz its already happened
before. That's the situation, and I'll leave it at that. Either way, they want to
learn from us, so we'll teach them, help them feel the Holy Ghost, pray for
them and her mom, and they'll decide for themselves what shall be done.
As I said, there have been some difficulties. C- decided that, because of his Grandma, he doesn't want to get baptized anymore.
All in all, he doesn't want to start a world war, as he would say. Its been sad
because he was really enthusiastic about it before. However, we've found with
him that he hasn't been keeping his commitments to pray and read the scriptures,
excepting our lessons with him. What we gotta do now is really help him know
that through these things, he will have really powerful, spiritual experiences
that will give him a testimony that these things are true. That will be the
motivation for him to overcome the oppression, to stand tall despite the wall
in front of him. He's been doing great with the word of wisdom, he's completely
given up smoking for three weeks now. I don't know how he has done it without
praying, but his willpower really is strong. We're still stoked for him anyway!
Things are all right with our other investigators. Not too
many lessons this week, lots of talking with members and committing them to
share the gospel with their friends, and to our dismay when we do our follow
ups, not a whole lot of action done. It's been tough, but also a good experience
to really encourage the members and show them how they can be a help in the
Lord's vineyard. I know the members much better than before now, and things are
great in terms of trust with them. Just gotta faaitoito!
To wrap up I thought I'd just bear my testimony of the love
our Heavenly Father has for us. In our life, we have all sorts of weaknesses
and imperfections, and as a missionary, a servant of the Lord, I've found that I
have plenty. While teaching the perfect gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and
bringing others to His perfect, restored church, one cannot help but feel a
little imperfect. But Heavenly Father knows this, he does not expect any of us
to be perfect. All he expects of us is to do our absolute best in striving to
be like Jesus Christ. Through His help and His guidance and His love, we can
overcome these weaknesses. The Lord said to the prophet Moroni: "I bgive
unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my cgrace
is sufficient for all men that dhumble
themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith
in me, then will I make eweak
things become strong unto them." Faith in our Heavenly Father and humility
before Him are what it takes to overcome these weaknesses, and do our best. I
know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us, and he is willing to
help us if we are willing to turn to him.
Anyway, that's about it for this week. Its kinda hard to
remember everything that happened this week, felt kinda like a scramble. But
with faith, hope and charity, the odds can be overcome. Things will get better!
I love you all, and a faaitoito!
Elder Ball
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