Press On Cheerfully

Friends and family! 💛 I hope you're all doing well. You have been on my mind lots recently. 

As for me, I'm trying to stay hopeful, and optimistic. As most of you probably expected, I have been asked to return home because of the virus. Getting this news was not easy I'm not gonna lie. I've been on my knees praying more than I think I ever have before, and because of that I have received the comfort and assurance that it is all for my good. God works in mysterious ways and I KNOW there is a wise purpose behind all of this, because our LOVING Heavenly Father has all wisdom and all power.

I just wanted to share a few thoughts from a talk given by Elder Holland called "Lessons from Liberty Jail" because it is powerful, and it helped me a lot this week. I would invite you to really read it, especially since I know most of you have extra time right now! 

In Doctrine and Covenants 123:17 Joseph while stuck in this cold, dark liberty jail says, "let us CHEERFULLY do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand with utmost assurance to see the Salvation of God and for His arm to be revealed." This is having complete trust in the Lord. This is having true faith. This is the attitude we should always strive to have in good times, or bad. Elder Holland goes on to say, "both Joseph and some of the greatest prophets, including the Savior, in the midst of distress and difficulty could remain calm and patient, charitable, and forgiving. They lived this way. They remembered their covenants, they disciplined themselves and knew they MUST live the gospel at all times! Not just when things were going well. The real test of our faith and our Christian discipleship is when things are not going smoothly. That is when we get to see what we're made of and how strong our commitment to the gospel really is."

I know that as we move forward CHEERFULLY, then we can justifiably turn to the Lord, and wait upon His mercy and see His arm revealed on our behalf. I'm extremely grateful for Australia, the people, the cultures, the growth I've experienced and my mission president and his wife. They are such examples of faith for me.  I'm grateful for prophets and apostles who are so inspired. I'm grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who has a perfect plan for each one of us. I'm grateful for a Savior, someone who knows exactly what I am feeling and knows exactly what I'm going through right now. His Atonement really does have the power to heal us and carry us and I can testify of that. He lives and that message is the same, no matter where I serve and so I will press forward cheerfully and go wherever He wants me to go. 💛 

Gonna miss walking by these beautiful flowers every morning.

Our ward mission leader and his wife.  Some of my very favorite people!

Samoan pancakes with milo :,)

Sister Tematuanui wanted KFC for the last time.  Classic.

We have been painting and drawing all week, haha.  Just trying to expand my artistic skills.

Blessings All Around :)

Hi everyone! 

If there's one thing I want to say this week it is that I am so grateful for my Savior and I know that He lives. He seemed a little closer this week. One of my transfer goals is to allow Christ's Atonement to carry me. I have felt His support in so many ways this week as it has been a bit harder, and I know that He can do that same for all of you. He has the power to comfort, bring patience, and give you continued strength to keep pushing on when you don’t feel like you can keep pushing on. This week He put little things along the way that helped me stay positive and I just have felt so much more gratitude for the simple things in life. I'm grateful I'm here in Australia surrounded by these people. I love our members and the relationships we have. I love laughter. I love sunshine and the blue skies. I love the mountains. I love having time to paint and draw and think. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and the peace it really does bring!!! I love my life and all of you! 

The highlight of this week was definitely last night. We got a message saying that our friend Jesse had just baptized his nephew a few days ago and he also blessed and passed the sacrament at home yesterday. How special. My heart just keeps filling with so much gratitude for Jesse and I'm so thankful I get to witness His progress. 

Keep counting your blessings. We have so much good around us and so much we can still be grateful for despite all the hard things going on. He loves you and wants you to be happy. :-) Have an amazing week, stay safe, and remember that peace can be found in and through our Savior Jesus Christ when we choose to humble ourselves and let Him in. This is certain!

District outing to the Blue Mountains

Fun P-day exploring.

What you do when you can't go outside...

Faith Over Fear

Love you guys how is it going? 

To be honest this week was harder for me because it was so slow! Coronavirus is really affecting the work and MAN IT IS HARD! We are pushing forward with faith and we are trying to make the best of it.

We had a funny/terrifying experience while walking around yesterday. This one guy stopped us and asked us to say a prayer with him for the Coronavirus.. before we did it he just starts COUGHING like crazyy and I was scared. He was like, "Don't worry I got checked for the virus and I don't have it", but then continues to cough all over. I am still scared. Finally we said the prayer with him and he yells "GOD BLESS THE BOOK OF MORMON" multiple times while all these people were walking by. Seemed like he had met missionaries before haha. Super nice guy but wow, scary!! I know that this is all so chaotic but I have found peace in knowing that God is so aware. These are the times that we have been warned about. 

Ether 4:17 says, "therefore when ye shall receive this record (the Book of Mormon) ye may know that the work of the Father has commenced upon all the face of the land." We now the have Book of Mormon, and His work really has began. Our Father in Heaven works in mysterious ways and He is moving this work along. I know that we have a loving prophet who is receiving revelation for us today because the heavens are still open. His message of hope brings so much peace into my life. Our mission president said, "we are committed to facing this latest challenge with faith, over fear and worry."

I love this. Just like our prophet, we can be optimistic about the future! 💛 

Have a safe/fun/creative/loving/faithful week. LOVE YOU ALL

Unplanned Opportunities

Hi

We saw Jesse this week and he is just doing absolutely amazing. We asked him how he has been feeling since the baptism, and he told us that overall, he just has so much more patience which I just love. Patience is definitely a gift that comes from having Holy Ghost with you always. He shared a couple experiences and it strengthen me. He is doing so well and that brings me so much joy. 

So, in this area I feel like we just hit a wall with all of our friends. None of them are really progressing and so I was studying more about how "the field is white already to harvest." I know that there are people being prepared and who are WILLING to act on our message right now! Doctrine and Covenants 123:12 reminds us that people have been kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. One thing that we have been praying for more lately is to have unplanned opportunities to serve and teach and to have spiritual sensitivity to recognize these opportunities. With this understanding and with this faith we were able to do a lot more finding this week and we had success!!

We met this lady from India named Jean while district finding. When I first saw her, I asked what made her happy and she smiled and said, YOU. This made me sooo happy. When we told her we were missionaries, she got excited because she knew we weren't trying to sell her anything haha. She then invited us to dinner with her at this Filipino shop right then and there, so that was super cool. We talked and talked about the church and then we left her with a Book of Mormon with our testimonies in it. She said that some really nice young men gave her this book years ago and so she was grateful to come in contact with missionaries again. This was an unplanned opportunity to teach that we had prayed for! Agh so awesome.

We also had a mission challenge this week (so fun) and one of the challenges for my companion and I was to find one house that had a "no knocking" sticker and to knock on THAT door. We were planning on skipping this challenge cause my comp had to go to the chapel to call her family for a bday, but on our way to the chapel I took a wrong turn (so weird because I never do this) and it lead us to a certain street. I just kept driving because I thought that if I keep driving to the end it would lead me back out to the other side but turns out it was a dead end. I thought "man if we are already in a neighborhood let's just knock on the next door that has the "no knocking" sticker just to get the challenge out of the way" haha! We go up to the door and this lady answered. We asked where she was from. She said she was from Samoa. So, with a bit of hesitation, I said, "oa mai oe?" and she replied with a big smile on her face. She opened the door completely. Turns out she is a member, but she has been inactive for just over 10 years. She has two daughters, 13 and 19 years old and they both are not baptized. The mom’s name is Sia and she just opened up to us. She was so grateful we went to visit her. She wants both of her daughters to get baptized. She got a bit emotional and told us to come back again on Tuesday so, wow this was all just a huge miracle/blessing. She told us to keep doing what we are doing. She also said that she could feel the Spirit just from us being with her which made me get a little emotional. I love being a representative of Christ. I love that in this missionary work, even though my comp and I are far from perfect, we can help people feel the Spirit.

 I am just amazed as I look back on this whole situation because if Sister Tematuanui didn't have to go to the chapel, I would have not driven in that direction, and if I hadn't taken a wrong turn we wouldn't have ended up on that street and if we weren't given that challenge we probably would not have knocked on her door. GOD IS SO GOOD. There really are people prepared to receive our message. God showed me this once again through this small but big unplanned opportunity!

I LOVE YOUS. HAVE THE BEST WEEK EVER! 

 

Just another pic of me and my companion.

This leaf reminded me of home. :)

Twinning. 

Spreading Love

Hi friends and family,

This week we heart attacked A LOT of people haha. We weren't sure of the impact it would have on the people, but we hope that it made them smile! A less active lady, Kelelah somehow knew it was us missionaries haha and so she messaged us at 5am after her long night shift of work and said thank you. She said that she had a really tough time at work and so when she came home to see all the hearts and notes she felt an overwhelming amount of love. I am so thankful we were able to uplift at least one person through this. Service really is able to lift the giver and the receiver. Service is the key to happiness!!

The highlight of my week was on Friday night. The sisters in our district had a baptism for a 14-year-old boy who grew up in a less active home his entire life. The whole family came to the baptism and the boy’s dad actually went up and bore his testimony to all of us and wow. I KNOW that Christ has the power to change us. When he bore his testimony, he told us that from this point on he would change his ways in order to make it back into the temple with his family. He wants to be able to be with his family forever. He said, "today begins the first chapter of my life," he said that he would see bishop on Sunday in his office. He would stop smoking and come back to church. This baptism was a turning point for their family. While he was speaking to us I could just feel the spirit so strongly. God loves each one of us and He will help us return no matter how far we have gone. It just takes a humble heart and a willing mind :)

The message that has been constantly coming to my mind this week is so simple and so comforting. When we put our trust in God we will never be disappointed. When we have complete trust in Him we have no need to worry. I am so glad I have this knowledge because it brings me so much peace. I know it can bring you the same peace! So next time something doesn't go your way, or something doesn't turn out remember that He knows. He will heal your heart and help you move forward. You really can't be disappointed when you put your trust in Him. So simple, so perfect, so beautiful.

Hope you guys are doing well. I miss you guys so much and I am always praying for yous. I love yous <3 Take care

Service project with some of the district.

Can you see Sister Simpson?