Ia ora na!
It's been a good week, Elder Swartz and I have been getting
along great and he brings a lot of new talent into our team. He's way smart,
he's into the Army and he's got a sound understanding, a clear intelligence.
Kinda like Moroni. It's good to have him as my last companion!
I've learned (or relearned) quite a few things this week
that have helped me come unto Christ. On Wednesday morning Elder Swartz and I
went with the Relief Society president to visit a contact that she made with
someone last week. During the visit, the woman, named V, expressed the
difficulties in her family, not being able to see her husband often because of
work and his opposition to anything gospel-related. She had been praying for
her husband for at least three years that things would go better, and with
total love the Relief Society President assured her that God heard her prayers,
and sent us to help her. V started to cry. In watching this exchange, I
remembered maybe the most important facet of missionary work: charity and love.
Doctrine and Covenants 12:8 reads "and no one can assist in this work
except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and
charity..." V was touched by what was being said simply because she
felt love. She felt our love, and through our love she felt the love of her
Heavenly Father, made manifest through the Holy Ghost.
Later that day, after having multiple plans fall through,
Elder Swartz and I decided to pray for guidance. We felt impressed to visit an
old reference that we had already tried to contact, so we went over, and
surprisingly enough the house of this reference was wide open, the TV is on and
we heard people inside. We call out "Ia ora na!" then the voices in
the house go silent. We wait... "Ia ora na! E taata to te fare?"
...Nothing. Already used to this kind of response, we figured it was best to
leave this house. We didn't question the revelation we received so we decided to
try going next door. As we come to the house next door, we see a woman sweeping
her porch, we call out and she comes to greet us. She introduces herself as
K, and we talk to each other for a little while. She and her husband moved
from Tahiti about a year ago to work here at Bora, and K has had no time
to go to her Protestant church since the move because of work. She had been
hoping to rededicate herself to learning the gospel and learning about Christ,
but she didn't really know how; she didn't even have a Bible! We explained our
role as missionaries, shared a quick message about Christ and the family, and
presented her a Book of Mormon. She was glad to receive it, and she thanked us
sincerely! Here someone was hoping and maybe praying to receive guidance, and
the Lord led us to her. He didn't tell us directly to go there, but by a means
we were already familiar with, we were led to her whereabouts and with faith we
were able to act on our revelation, in spite of the initial disappointment.
Saturday we had a lesson with a man named Y. About two
weeks ago we met Y in trying to contact and old investigator. The old
investigator wasn't there, but Y was, and he was completely wasted. Normally
we choose not to spend a lot of time with the drunk guys, but he called us
over, and Elder Duncan and I went to talk to him briefly, but ended up
listening to him for about a half an hour about his recent separation from his
wife and kids, and his feeling lost, not knowing which religion could be true.
We bore our testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was
indeed true, and that the fulness of the Gospel contained the solutions to his
problems, and he accepted a lesson at his house for last Saturday. So Elder
Swartz and I went to visit him Saturday, he was sober, we shared the message of
the Restoration and he understood perfectly the message. I'm glad that we
decided to listen to Yvon and recognize that he was someone who wanted help,
rather than quickly judge him and dismiss him.
Those are my thoughts for the week. Life is going by pretty
quickly, and in a month I'll be home... pretty sketchy feeling. With the weeks
left, I'll be doing my best to get the most out of em. I love you all, have a
great week!
No comments:
Post a Comment