Week 5 - The Week of the Wedding

Kia Ora,

So this week my companion's sister got married on Friday. Boy it was a trying week for all of us. She was all over the place and distracted and emotional and mostly sad, and me and the other comp were lost as to what the heck we could do to help. Sometimes she wanted to talk about it and unload all the feels (yuck) and other times she got super snappy and just wanted to be alone. But we all learned heaps about obedience and our purpose here so that's what counts, right? Anyway it was hard but we still killed it this week in lessons and contacting. 

One of our investigators, Liva, is really open about everything. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she said it gave her heaps of closure about things and that maybe we were sent there to teach her that. (Nah, we were sent there to baptize her, she's defs getting baptized.) But her brother is a member and we just reactivated his family, and then we met her sister and her family and we're going to start teaching them, and we've also been visiting her aunt Paula so pretty much we're going to convert the whole family. Pretty stoked. I love that family so much. This week I studied a little bit about charity and something that is really cool being a missionary is that when you walk into someone's home and start talking to them, you are able to feel a portion of the love that Jesus has for them. It's super cool and I've really grown to love these people out in Taranaki. But Liva's son Ricco is suuuuper keen about the church and his member cousin, Melakhi (Malachi), is super key in the lessons with him. But whenever we go over, Ricco and Melakhi have written raps and they just rap for us. It's funny because lately they've all been gospel related and so their raps are always in my head. (ex.. God doesn't have a cell phone but you can still talk to him, he doesn't have a Facebook but you can still be His friend, nor does He have a Twitter but I still follow Him) Anyway, super fun with that family. 

So this area is pretty new, my comps opened it up just last transfer so we've been doing tons of reactivating. I think last transfer was all about planting the seeds, this transfer is about teaching the lessons, and next transfer all the baptisms will roll in. The people are so humble and prepared to hear the message! Sister Inia's aunties really loved the plan of salvation but the lesbian thing got brought up and I was honestly lost as to what to say. Good thing Sis Pagofie has heaps of great scriptures for any situation, but I still don't know how we're gonna tackle that. 

Oh we went on exchanges and that was good. I was in a different area with a Tongan sister that isn't great at listening to what people are saying; she just spurts out random gospel facts. But neither of us can drive yet so we were on bikes and those hills were not fun. Especially because we would almost be at the top and she would stop right before and start walking so I would either have to swerve or stop too. So frustrating. But we visited this old couple and they both have cancer so it was super sad and they're in loads of pain. The man said it's not the physical pain that hurts him though, it's the pain that comes from seeing his sweetheart in so much pain. I just about died on the spot and I was able to feel the Savior's love for them as we sang them heaps of hymns. It was crazy. 

Anyway, it's been a great week!! The church is true! Heavenly Father loves us all so much!

Love you all heaps!

Sister Machen