Week 46 - Change, Change, Chaaaaange

Heyyy.

We had a great week! It's always a great week when you take the time to reflect on the miracles and blessings you have seen and received. We had a zone meeting all about INVITING, it was a good reminder to me to leave people with an invitation to act every time we talk with them. Otherwise they won't do anything! Also, with President Rudd leaving, a lot of things changed in the mission, most of his protocols were taken away giving us a lot more freedom... Scary though haha. Anyway, so after getting all fired up at zone meeting we went out and visited this part member family. We started right away and asked their daughter if she would like to receive the lessons, she said yes and we sat down and taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and Invited her to be baptized... drum roll... she said YES! It was such a cool experience because her parents have been less active for years but they just came back all of a sudden to full activity by themselves (they said, "no one but me can save me.") and they want SO bad to be sealed. So at the end of the lesson her dad shared his testimony and his great desire to be sealed as a family. The spirit was so strong. This is why we do missionary work- so families can be together forever.

Another cool experience we had was yesterday we had the opportunity to go to a tangi! My first one. That's the Maori style funeral at the Marae. Anyway it was really cool and interesting to see how different cultures do things. At the tangi, there was a Christian pastor and he said a few words before our member who was conducting the meeting shared some thoughts. The stuff the pastor said was somewhat good and true but I noticed how plain and precious truths of the plan of salvation are, mainly that because Christ was resurrected, we will all live again. And that death is not a punishment for a person's unrighteous deeds but a part of the wonderful plan that enables us to progress through eternity. I'm so grateful for the restored gospel, the wonderful knowledge we have of the true character of our Heavenly Father and His plan for us.

Well that's about it, I'm loving the culture and the miracles that we see everyday. You don't have to be a missionary to see miracles everyday! I invite you all to discover what the Lord is asking of you at this moment, and DO IT. I love this gospel and I know it's true!

Much AROHA,
Sister Machen

PS. Yes my mission is approved to wear PANTS but I refuse to wear pants. The pant options are all hideous. I think I'll live with a few mosquito bites.