What a week! I didn't fall through a bamboo bridge... but I still had some good experiences. Man, first i want to say that I am so humbled by sumner's service. really. Elder Ma'afe! These are the days to be remembered!!! Gosh.
It was a wonderful week! I am so tired every day haha. Like soooo tired. It's crazy. But I just run faster and work harder so the feeling goes away. Side note: don't challenge your tongan companion, who is extrememly competitive, but looks tired, to a race when you are wearing a pencil skirt. oh my gosh. I said " ok, last one to the door has to give the lesson" haha and then she TOOK off!.she almost ran over an old lady hahah. My dang pencil skirt... my legs could barely move.Dumb. I gave the lesson.
We found 9 new investigators this week and put them all ondate for baptism. BUT i have realized that numbers mean nothing if they don't come to church. If they don't come to church then they can't get baptized :( They are all reading and praying and searching... but if they don't come to church they won't get their answer. it's as simple as that!
We had the most spriitual and amazing experience with a new investigator veronica! She said she had been praying and searching for truth and none of the other churches felt right. Oh man, she is amazing and has already been reading and praying. Pray for her. she is amother of three!
The bishop of our ward is awesome. He has so much charity..
This area is not maple valley. so different but so humbling. Our church parking lot has to have security during church hours lol.
Ok, I gotta run. I love you all so much. So MUCH. I pray for you all the time. This gospel is true. I love being a missionary and wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world. I love our savior and heavenly father. What plans they have in store for us!! Just hold on :) I love love love you!!!
oh! Brandon, tabby's bro got baptized last night!!!! CHEEEHOOOOOO!!!! hahah!
love, Sister Mara
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Faith is the Power, love is the motive, and the Savior is the reason.
Talofa!
Oh my wordy word this week I spoke in russian, spanish, korean, tongan, samoan and english! haha. There is SO much diversity here! It's insane but I love it so much. I feel like I have been here a month already. I was so exhausted this week. Body, Mind, Emotions, Spirit. Everything was tired. Poor Sister Ate, looks the same as I feel haha. We were so tired. BUT, i don't have trouble sleeping anymore and I love my bed! The housing coordinators bought us new blankets and pillows and i feel like a queen ( except for the fact that my mattress is on the ground and there is mold growing on my windows) Haha. It's great here. We got lost so many times! But we experienced a beautiful miracle!
So it was 8pm and all of our plans had fallen through. Since we are both new to the area, we didn't really have an idea of where to go. We parked our car and then just walked up and down the streets talking to everyone we saw. We met some realllly interesting people. haha. We had prayed and we knew that someone was waiting to be baptized. The Lord has promised that there was someone prepared, so we were determined to work until we found them. Well, it was time to go home and we had prayed with people and shared our testimonies but no one accepted the baptismal challenge. We got home and were a bit disappointed, but then the Elders texted us and told us they ran into someone in our area who was a former investigator and just moved here from another city and they want to be baptized in October!!! Holy smokes! The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Can I just say that there is no better feeling than following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and then letting the spirit speak through you? Oh my goodness, it's like a high! haah. (Is that sacrilegious to compare it to that?) haha. Last night it was really late and we met this old guy named Anthony. He had a masters in theology and was coming at us from all different angles. I finally just said (with charity) "Either I'm right and your wrong or vis versa. The only way to find out if there really is a prophet on the earth is to pray. I know this is the true church with the full restored gospel. I know because i prayed and received and answer. Will you do the same?" Then he just paused and looked at me and said "Yes, I will pray. I promise you I will pray". haha it was so cool! It wasn't even me talking! We are going back tonight to see if he got his answer :)
Sister Ate is great. We have had some funny experiences already.
The first counselor called sat. night and asked me to speak on sunday morning. LIke I wasn't stressed Enough! haha. HOly smokes. I was so stressed. But it went well! IT's allll good.
I love you all. I love this gospel! There is nothing truer than this. I know we are HAPPIEST when we aren't thinking of ourselves. The moment we start thinking of ourselves, everything goes downhill. haha. I love you guys so much!
To Zion!
Love, Sister Mara.
Oh my wordy word this week I spoke in russian, spanish, korean, tongan, samoan and english! haha. There is SO much diversity here! It's insane but I love it so much. I feel like I have been here a month already. I was so exhausted this week. Body, Mind, Emotions, Spirit. Everything was tired. Poor Sister Ate, looks the same as I feel haha. We were so tired. BUT, i don't have trouble sleeping anymore and I love my bed! The housing coordinators bought us new blankets and pillows and i feel like a queen ( except for the fact that my mattress is on the ground and there is mold growing on my windows) Haha. It's great here. We got lost so many times! But we experienced a beautiful miracle!
So it was 8pm and all of our plans had fallen through. Since we are both new to the area, we didn't really have an idea of where to go. We parked our car and then just walked up and down the streets talking to everyone we saw. We met some realllly interesting people. haha. We had prayed and we knew that someone was waiting to be baptized. The Lord has promised that there was someone prepared, so we were determined to work until we found them. Well, it was time to go home and we had prayed with people and shared our testimonies but no one accepted the baptismal challenge. We got home and were a bit disappointed, but then the Elders texted us and told us they ran into someone in our area who was a former investigator and just moved here from another city and they want to be baptized in October!!! Holy smokes! The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Can I just say that there is no better feeling than following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and then letting the spirit speak through you? Oh my goodness, it's like a high! haah. (Is that sacrilegious to compare it to that?) haha. Last night it was really late and we met this old guy named Anthony. He had a masters in theology and was coming at us from all different angles. I finally just said (with charity) "Either I'm right and your wrong or vis versa. The only way to find out if there really is a prophet on the earth is to pray. I know this is the true church with the full restored gospel. I know because i prayed and received and answer. Will you do the same?" Then he just paused and looked at me and said "Yes, I will pray. I promise you I will pray". haha it was so cool! It wasn't even me talking! We are going back tonight to see if he got his answer :)
Sister Ate is great. We have had some funny experiences already.
The first counselor called sat. night and asked me to speak on sunday morning. LIke I wasn't stressed Enough! haha. HOly smokes. I was so stressed. But it went well! IT's allll good.
I love you all. I love this gospel! There is nothing truer than this. I know we are HAPPIEST when we aren't thinking of ourselves. The moment we start thinking of ourselves, everything goes downhill. haha. I love you guys so much!
To Zion!
Love, Sister Mara.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
42 days without Rain!!!!
Hi family!
Guess where I am emailing you from?? Yep ! That's right! Federal Way! haha! I'm back in the mother land. Oh it is so bitter sweet. This has been the craziest last week. I had a feeling all week that I was leaving. The work was just starting to slow down and all of our investigators were dropping us. I felt like it was time for me to go... which i was ok with but I didn't want to leave S. Aitiria. Oh my heart hurts for her. My two dear dear friends, Banksy and Aitiria, get to serve together around all the people that I have grown to love in these past 6 months and I had to leave! so sad!
But My new companion, sister ate is amazing. She is from tonga! She has the kindest heart and desires to serve people. I really do love my island girls. I think the mission has been tough for her with the different culture. I will just have to forget myself and go to work and love this sister so much.
So let me tell you about Steve. Remember how we loved him so much?? Well he set up this appointment with us and scheduled his own fellowship... and when we got there he was no where to be found !! But his book of mormon was sitting by the front doors! So i picked it up and then we went looking for him in our car. We saw him walking down the road about 30 minutes later and he saw us and started running in the other direction! Oh my goodness! Our hearts were broken! We tried calling and stopping by his house and he never called back or was there. We have no idea what happened :( :(
Dougie is supposed to get baptized next week. Why do i ALWAYS get transferred right before one of my investigators gets baptized?? Ugh. it kills me. Banksy will get to be there for his baptism but i won't. So sad.
So i have been having a hard time sleeping lately and Sister Aitiria is the sweetest, best companion! She will tell me stories until I fall asleep or sing island songs to me. It always helps! I fall right alseep! I love it! I'm going to miss her. I already do.
Right now there is a little girl walking around yelling " mama! donde estas??" haha. I love the diversity here!
Today was crazy. So Sister Ate and I got white washed to a new area. That means we are both brand new here. Good thing is we have both served here previously. We don't have GPS so I am totally lost and we don't have a phone or a key to our apt. So we followed the Elders back and they let us into our apt. WELL! the other elders hadn't moved out yet so we proceeded to move our stuff in and their stuff out with the elders. SO weird. Oh my goodness. haha. I am so lost here. I haven't felt this stressed for awhile. But I love Federal Way so much and I will love my new companion so much too.
The good thing is, it's a learning period. It's time to stretch and have my heart broken and for me to rely on the atonement and trust our Heavenly Father. All is well. It just hurts. I'm so grateful for this time in my mission. it feels so surreal and nostalgic to be back here. I feel kind of numb and like i'm just watching myself right now. It's so strange.
I love love love you! Pray for Sister Ate and I that we can find those who are prepared for the message we have to share.
Love, Sister Mara
Guess where I am emailing you from?? Yep ! That's right! Federal Way! haha! I'm back in the mother land. Oh it is so bitter sweet. This has been the craziest last week. I had a feeling all week that I was leaving. The work was just starting to slow down and all of our investigators were dropping us. I felt like it was time for me to go... which i was ok with but I didn't want to leave S. Aitiria. Oh my heart hurts for her. My two dear dear friends, Banksy and Aitiria, get to serve together around all the people that I have grown to love in these past 6 months and I had to leave! so sad!
But My new companion, sister ate is amazing. She is from tonga! She has the kindest heart and desires to serve people. I really do love my island girls. I think the mission has been tough for her with the different culture. I will just have to forget myself and go to work and love this sister so much.
So let me tell you about Steve. Remember how we loved him so much?? Well he set up this appointment with us and scheduled his own fellowship... and when we got there he was no where to be found !! But his book of mormon was sitting by the front doors! So i picked it up and then we went looking for him in our car. We saw him walking down the road about 30 minutes later and he saw us and started running in the other direction! Oh my goodness! Our hearts were broken! We tried calling and stopping by his house and he never called back or was there. We have no idea what happened :( :(
Dougie is supposed to get baptized next week. Why do i ALWAYS get transferred right before one of my investigators gets baptized?? Ugh. it kills me. Banksy will get to be there for his baptism but i won't. So sad.
So i have been having a hard time sleeping lately and Sister Aitiria is the sweetest, best companion! She will tell me stories until I fall asleep or sing island songs to me. It always helps! I fall right alseep! I love it! I'm going to miss her. I already do.
Right now there is a little girl walking around yelling " mama! donde estas??" haha. I love the diversity here!
Today was crazy. So Sister Ate and I got white washed to a new area. That means we are both brand new here. Good thing is we have both served here previously. We don't have GPS so I am totally lost and we don't have a phone or a key to our apt. So we followed the Elders back and they let us into our apt. WELL! the other elders hadn't moved out yet so we proceeded to move our stuff in and their stuff out with the elders. SO weird. Oh my goodness. haha. I am so lost here. I haven't felt this stressed for awhile. But I love Federal Way so much and I will love my new companion so much too.
The good thing is, it's a learning period. It's time to stretch and have my heart broken and for me to rely on the atonement and trust our Heavenly Father. All is well. It just hurts. I'm so grateful for this time in my mission. it feels so surreal and nostalgic to be back here. I feel kind of numb and like i'm just watching myself right now. It's so strange.
I love love love you! Pray for Sister Ate and I that we can find those who are prepared for the message we have to share.
Love, Sister Mara
Our Ward Mission Leader
The Bairds
Sister Aitiria, the Elders, and I right before transfers!
Sister Ate and I!
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