Happy Australia Day!

Hello everyone, 

I hope you are all doing well 💛 It was Australia day yesterday so President Runia asked us to stay inside. We were able to do lots of planning and studying haha! Nothing too exciting other than our non stop chanting/singing neighbors 😂 We also got to sing the Australian national anthem in church! So nice hahaha I love this place. 

This week we put our friend Jesse on date for Feb 15th :) When we asked him, his face just lit up. He agreed and is now working towards baptism. He has so much support all around him which is such a blessing to see! We are hoping everything goes well. Please keep him in your prayers 💛 

We had zone conference this week which was amazing because our mission President and his wife are literal angels and everything they say is inspired. My prayers were answered through what they said! Something they invited us to do is to read "the living christ" everyday for one month and I want to extend that same invitation to all of you!!! We are promised an increased amount of love, happiness and appreciation for our Savior and His Atonement. It doesn't get much better than that. I can testify that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way we can receive true joy in this life. All we need to do is follow and Him and His teachings. 

The thought that has been going through my mind this week is that "Jesus Christ was willing to be inconvenienced." We are not alone as missionaries, despite all the rejection we face. I know we are standing shoulder to shoulder with the greatest missionary that ever walked on this earth and that is Jesus Christ. He is our perfect example. I would invite you all to make the necessary changes to ensure you're following in Christ's footsteps. When you do this you will be able to cope with situations with more faith and you will find so much more purpose in life, and of course you will live with so much more happiness. 

I hope you all know how much I love you and appreciate your support. I love this beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary and I love seeing God's hand in every single day. He is there and He loves you. 

Two zones combined for conference.

Bro. Sialeipata taught Sis. Tematuanui and I how to make pani popos (coconut buns)!

Saw the biggest spider in our flat and it was traumatizing!

A dust storm in New South Wales.

My companions and I only have a week left of this transfer, wow!

A blue sky.  A miracle!

Pray Always

It rained all week here in NSW! Thank you so much for all of your prayers!! You all are seriously the best. God is so good. In the bible dictionary it says that the objective of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant us! HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THAT! This is evident with what happened here in Australia. As soon as we all prayed and fasted for rain, it started to rain. God is always wanting to help. So pray always!!

This week we finally met a less active lady in our ward. We have been trying to contact her for 2 months now! She poured her heart out to us about her situation and about how she has been missing church. She told us that when she heard the knock on her door she said a prayer hoping it would be missionaries. I was so glad we could be an answer to her prayer. I am grateful God sent us to her. Her strength and testimony and extra love gave me hope to keep doing missionary work. It was the extra boost I needed. The spirit was there a little extra. We could all feel God's love for her. Those kinds of moments are so special for me.

Just yesterday we went and visited this other lady, Michelle! She is a returning member and I just love her with my whole heart. We were in her backyard and Sister Tematuanui was playing the piano and she was playing her guitar and it actually sounded sooooo beautiful and in that moment I was just at peace. I felt so much joy and love for Australia. I LOVE this place and these people. I know this is where I need to be right now.

Have such an amazing week everyone! God loves you and so do I!!! 

This is Tina, my favorite little girl.  Oh man, she is funny and just too cute!

My favorite place, the Sydney temple.

We get fed SO much.

RAIN, YES!

His Mercy is Infinite

Hii

Another good week here in Australia!! We got to go to the temple this morning and WOW I am so grateful. The temple will forever be my favorite place. It is where I feel closest to God and it is where I find the most peace and comfort. Emos came to church again and it just made me the happiest, PLUS our friend Jesse came to church again this Sunday. We have taught him the first two lessons and yesterday we talked to him about baptism! We will see where that goes but the overall experience in the lesson was super spiritual. His cousin, who is a less-active member, joined us for the lesson. We asked him if he had anything more to add during the lesson, and he just got emotional and bore his testimony to Jesse about how even though he falls short, he knows that God is still there and that God still loves him. The spirit in that room just reminded me of how good God really is. HE LOVES US ALL!!

What I loved most about my studies this week was realizing once again just how perfect God's plan is, and how His mercy is infinite. God is full of patience. He has a perfect plan for His imperfect children. The beautiful thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we get an infinite number of redoes. No matter how many times we fall short, or how far we may feel from Him, we are never too far from His reach. Because of our Father’s perfect plan, we get to try again and again and again! We get to live with hope and a peace of conscious when we choose to follow Him.

I love you all so so much and I pray for you all often. Thank you for all the love and support! Have a super great/uplifting/spiritual week! Don't forget to include Heavenly Father in your daily lives. He wants to hear from you! 

Ok ok LOVE YOU ALL

Temple Day!

Beautiful companions at the temple

Heart Full of Gratitude

Hi friends and family,

Happy New Year!! I'm excited I get to dedicate all of 2020 to serving the Lord. Highlight of my week was definitely church this Sunday. We had 6 of our friends come to church plus Rebecca who has been inactive for around 10 years now. Seeing Rebecca at church with a smile on her face brought me indescribable joy!!! We sang "count your blessings" in sacrament meeting and my heart just filled with so much gratitude. The Spirit was so strong. I have so many things to be grateful for, and right now I am just extra grateful that I get to be here in Australia, as an instrument in God's work, and that I get to be a part of these faith building experiences. I get to help others come to know their Savior better, and it really is what brings me the most joy. I love my life because it is centered around Jesus Christ. 

Yesterday we all fasted and prayed for rain in Australia. I have faith that God will bless us with rain. My companions are carrying an umbrella in our car, just waiting for the rain, because we know it will come. I am safe, but so many others are not. Please keep us and all of Australia in your prayers this week.

I love you guys! Please please let me know if I can help with anything. I would invite you all to set a goal for this new year that will help you grow closer to Jesus Christ. I can promise that if you do this, you will find more happiness than you've ever experienced. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world.

My Tahitian friends.  They're so cute.

We went aqua-golfing on PDay.

Service project in 48 C (HOT)

Our last day of 2019.