February was white in Kalgoorlie‏

G'day everyone!

This has easily been one of the greatest weeks we've had in a long time.  I'll start with the Sister Training Leaders.  Sister Ensign and Sister Bailey came up again this week.   Miracles happen when those two come.  We found 4 new investigators this week and we able to break down barriers with some people that we were never able to crack.  The work is moving here and it is only going to get better.  We met with the Relief Society President Julia Hawaikirangi and set up rescue visits for us to go out with the mums here during the day.  Many ladies can't come at night because they are taking care of their families so we are going to do visits on Wednesday mornings instead.  We are all really excited about it. 

On Thursday we were able to go to mutual to help with their activity.  We were asked to start in the chapel and teach the Plan of Salvation to the youth.  While we were teaching them the Laurels came in and pulled a few kids out at a time.  Within 20 minutes all of the youth were out of the chapel and into the cultural hall.  In the hall they had ping pong, a play station hooked up, a whole table full of food, a piano to play, and a photo booth to take photos.  At all of the stations there were also scriptures to read.  If they read any scriptures they received a token.  They had lots of fun playing games.  Then they were taken one by one out of the hall and down to some class rooms where one of their YM leaders was in his suit waiting for them.  He asked if they had anything for him.  They then were able to hand over their tokens if they had received any, or held on to those that they received.  If they had 1 or less they were directed to a completely dark room with nothing in it.  If they had 2 tokens they were lead to a room that had only a dimly lit lamp.  If they had 3 or more (there was potential to have 6) they were lead to a room where the lights were all on, there was a picture of the Savior, music playing and a chair for each of them to sit on.  After they were all in a room they were allowed to come back into the chapel to discuss what had just happened.  It was a great eye opener for a lot of the youth.  Even though they were at mutual they still didn't quite make all the choices they needed to to get to the best room.  Nearly half ended up in the darkest room.   One miamaid said, "I've never thought of my choices like that before."  It was an incredible humbling experience for me and my companion.  There were youth who while with us in the "pre-earth life" that were listening to us so carefully that they didn't even realize that it was their turn to leave.  Others were really anxious to get to go to the next room even though they had no idea what they would do in there.  There was one girl that pulled at my heart though.  As she left us she said, I'll be back to hear the rest later!"  When they all left our room I looked at my companion and just cried.  She had no idea what that sentence was going to really mean.  It was remarkable to get a small glimpse of what it was like for Heavenly Father to send us all here to earth.  

Saturday we had the baptism of Mark and Ngaio.  They are the amazing couple that the Elders have been teaching.  Ngaio just cried all through sacrament meeting as she was able to take the sacrament for the first time.  She told us afterwards that that was the best thing for her.  She said that in previous weeks it was almost unbearable to be able to touch the tray as it came to her and then just pass it by.  She said that it was really like being able to feel the Savior right there for her and she hadn't done everything in her power to become part of his church.  Investigators can take the sacrament before they are baptized but for these two they saw the meaning of the sacrament the way that we all should. They held it in such a sacred term that when they had been cleansed from all their mistakes and had been given the gift of the Holy Ghost they were just overwhelmed to be able to partake of the sacrament and feel it's remarkable power enable and strengthen them.  I was grateful for her testimony and reminder of what the sacrament is all about.  I pray that we can all see it like her as we prepare every week to partake of that blessing in our lives. 

Sunday morning Sister Kim and I were up at half passed 4 to get ready to go fill the font for Mady's baptism and have our meeting with the elders and Brother Timu before the baptism.  Whoever thought that a 7:30am baptism wouldn't be well attended was sorely mistaken.  We filled the entire chapel with members, and less-active members at Madyson's baptism.  I got a call from Lemuel at 7pm the night before asking me to speak.  His sister for different reasons didn't want to speak so I humbly took the opportunity.  The baptism was beautiful.  After grandpa and Mady changed and came back into the chapel we had a few of her uncles bare their testimonies about their baptisms.  The spirit was soo strong.  Then it was Mady's turn to bear her testimony and she was too scared and started to cry.  Well Mady is Lemuel's little princess and he stood up in her behalf.  He bore his testimony about how he hasn't stood at a pulpit in about the last 9 years.  He talked about how even though he isn't completely active that he knows the church is true.  He said that Mady's baptism is a big step for their family and that they really needed the push.  He shared his gratitude for the missionaries in helping her be prepared for her baptism.  I couldn't stop crying.  The spirit was so strong.  The gospel blesses families when the gospel is lived in full.  I've loved being a part of so many families that make the changes necessary to live the gospel more fully to receive those blessings.  It's incredible humbling and beautiful to see.  

Sunday night we were able to watch the South Pacific Area Broadcast.  It was really good!  Elder Keven W. Pearson talked about strengthening our individual spirituality.  There are three things that he said that we can work on to do that.  

1. Strengthen/deepen your own personal faith in our Savior Jesus Christ.  

2. Recommit ourselves to the law of the fast.

3. A full immersion in the Book of Mormon. 

O. Vincent Haleck talked about how hastening the work isn't just in the full-time missionary work for the living but it includes all of our individual work for our ancestors on the other side as well.  It was incredibly moving.  I encourage everyone to find at least one name in your history that you can take to the temple.  Go find someone that you can rescue today.  :)

Last but definitely not least we received transfer calls this morning.  I only have 2 more days here in Kalgoorlie.  I am being transferred to the Golden Bay area.  That is part of the Mandurah Ward in the Rockingham Stake.  My new companion is going to be Sister Murray.  I don't know anything about her except that she has only been out for 3 months.  It will be fun to get to know her and learn from her.  I'm incredibly saddened to leave Kalgoorlie.  I'm grateful for all of the wonderful things that I was able to be a part of.  I love being a missionary.  This is the greatest work any of us could ever be a part of.  I love it.  I love hearing about all of the wonderful things that you have all been doing.  Good on ya dad and Josh for getting active and doing so well on your dualthon.  Sophie mom's blog about the swim season made me so excited to watch you swim next season.  I've loved being able to brag about the fact that you went and swam at state.  Ben and David!  Good job on the Mr. PVHS run!  I'm pretty sure that I will have to be the picture taker for a while when I get home because you will both be too fast for me to keep up in a run.  I love reading mum's blog and seeing all that you've been able to do.  I love you all!  Miss you heaps!   

Much love,
Sister Shayne     

Pic #1 Mark and Ngaio with Elder Battye and Elder Brown 

 

Pic #2  Mady Lemuel and Mum 

 

 

Pic #3 Us and Mady :)

We went to a restaurant the other day and they asked what name to put it under and I told them to just put it under the same name as Sister Kim.  When we got our bags this is what mine said.   This take the meaning of "taking upon yourself the name of Christ" to a whole new meaning.  :)

 

 

 

 

 We went to the Tipene's after church for a feed.  This was the cake that her auntie Kandaeda made for her :) 

 

 Sister Kim made sushi one day for lunch while the Sister's were up.

This is Tiariki Kaa :)  This was at the feed after Mark and Ngiao's baptism.  Fun fact the Kaa's should be moving back to Utah in the next few months so we decided that they will be able to come to the airport when I come home!

These last two were also at the Tipene's after the baptism.  Elder Brown was called upon to do magic tricks while they cleaned up the food before they brought out dessert.  He got quite a crowd of everyone not just the kids.  He is a pretty good magician.  They all loved him.  These little girls wouldn't stop asking him to do more. 

I love this week! :)

This has been a great week here in Kalgoorlie.

Tuesday I gave our District Meeting.  Elder Brown believes that we are all supposed to be uplifted and edified by each other so instead of him teaching District Meeting every week he assigns us a chance to give training and this was my lucky week.  It was really great though because just like every time you prepare a lesson the teacher learns more than the students.  We focused on diligence, our conversion, and opening our mouths to proclaim the gospel without fear.  It was really good.  I was grateful for the opportunity.  That night we also had a Relief Society activity.  It was a fun night to get to know more of the ward.  We made this little cookie sheets with chalk board paper on it.  Ours is used for our Christ-like attribute for the week. 

 

Wednesday night we held a mid-week correlation with Brother Timu to discuss the wonderful things that are happening in our ward.  We also discussed a plan to get the members excited to help find people to have the missionaries teach.  We came up with a whole fireside that will happen next month.  It will be a great thing for all of them.  The meeting was full of the spirit and we really feel like there are going to be good things happening in this ward.  We held that meeting because we have what President calls a "high-class problem" for this next weekend were we have 3 people being baptized but at different times so we had to sauce that all out.  The Elders have a baptism of Mark and his wife Ngaio on Saturday night at 4pm and we have Madyson Tipene's baptism Sunday morning at 7:30am.  We were worried that that would be a problem seeing as that is a lot of water to fill it up Saturday, drain it, and fill it back up Sunday morning.  We can't leave it full without someone to watch over it.  Water is really dear (precious) out here and we were worried that they wouldn't let us do it like that.  Brother Timu said that that would be no dramas.  

Thursday while we were doing our weekly planning we had our neighborhood cat come by the front window to say hi.  We've been trying to get a picture for him for a while.  He only has one eye.  I like this photo because he is winking at us. 

 

That night we decorated the Elder's flat with heart-shaped sticky notes with scriptures on them about the love of God.  Scriptures like, "For God so loved the world that he gave his Only Begotten Son." (John 3:16)  We had a lot of fun finding different scriptures to put on the post-its.  On their window the post-its spelled out Happy Valentines Day.  We did it at about 8:30pm and were scared that they would catch us since it was about 30 minutes until we were all supposed to be in our flats.  We were quick and had fun decorating.  That leads us to Valentines day!

This is the Elder Flat.  The window, the door and their fence :) 

 

  This was a sign that we stuck to their house as well.

Friday was a great day!  We started it off with a phone call from the mission office telling me that Henry was born!  They gave me permission to get on that day and see him. :)  We tried straight away but Ashley was feeding him.  It was good to see Brad holding Henry though for the few seconds that I saw them :)  Then we went to a non-members house for a service project.  Flashback a couple of weeks ago we tracted into this lady named Allie.  She wasn't interested in what we had to share and said that she already had a Book of Mormon that she received from a friend.  We asked who her friend was and she said, Noelle.  Noelle is the Bishop Rowe's wife!  We were pretty excited to talk to Sister Rowe about Allie.  Thursday Sister Rowe called us and said that Allie was moving and needed the Elders help to move some big furniture if they were available.  We said of course and all 4 of us went over Thursday morning to help.  She put the Elders straight to work but didn't think she needed us.  We offered to clean anything that needed to be cleaned and she looked like she was going to cry.  She said, "Are you sure you want to help like that?  I can't do that to you girls."  We told her that that is what we do and that we could help in every room if she needed us to.  We got to work.  We scrubbed walls, floorboards, closets, and windows for about an hour and then she asked us if we could come back in an hour and help some more.  She had some errands she needed to run. We went and got lunch, went and decorated the Timu's house just like we did the Elders, and then went back to the Library to try Henry again.  We pulled up the camera and there was a sign saying that the nurse was taking care of him, so we decided to wait until dinner and then try again.

This is just a couple of the many places that they had post-it notes.  Pia texted us a big thank you when she got home to see it.  She said that it really made them feel loved. 

 

  We finished service at Allie's house went home, cleaned up, changed and went to the Tipene's.  Madyson was having her interview with the Elders so we went a little early to go through the questions with her one more time so that she was ready to answer anything that was asked.  She is the most amazing little girl.  She wants to be baptized soo bad.  She had an ear to ear grin across her face as she finished her interview with Elder Brown.  She is be baptized Sunday the 23rd at 7:30am by her Grandpa.  They call him King George.    Then we went from them to dinner with the Kaa family.  Jack's mum is in town so we got to meet her.  We had a delicious dinner and shared President Monson's video called, What matters most.  https://www.lds.org/youth/video/what-matters-most?lang=eng It was very appropriate for Valentines day.  Of course as soon as we told Nykell about Henry she gave me full reign of the laptop.  She hooked it into her TV so we could see better.  That was a major highlight of our night.

 

 This is one I cropped to see if we looked alike.  I think he looks like Ashley :)

 

 

Then we went to a lesson with Ronnie.  We were going to teach him a little more about the Priesthood.  We took the Elders Quorum President Brother Wharemate and his wife Leonie with us.  They were awesome.  Brother Wharemate and Ronnie had a lot in common and just got a long like old friends.  It's amazing how God has prepared not only Ronnie but every person we've taken to meet him to help him along his path.  When we left Sister Wharemate said, "Thanks for letting us come with you to this for our Valentines date.  It was great to be able to meet him and help in the work."  That made me smile.  

Sunday was Ronnie's baptism!  We got to the chapel about a quarter past 7 in the morning and met up with the Elders, Ronnie, and Brother Timu.  By the time we had Elder Brown and Ronnie in their all whites, pictures taken and everyone back in the chapel for the start it was about 7:40am.  We had 5 families come to support!  The whole program was run by the members and it was such a special meeting.  It was amazing to see all of the little kids come that early and sit and be reverent during it all.  I love this ward.  They are so friendly and are always looking for ways to help, lift and support wherever and whenever they can.  It's a major blessing.  

Ronnie's baptism :)

Baptized by Elder Benjamin Brown

Confirmed by Brother Manu Timu

 This whole week has been amazing and the week ahead of us looks just as great!  I love Kalgoorlie.  I love being a missionary.  These experiences really only come once in a life time and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to serve.  I love you all and pray for you always.  It was awesome to see all about David and Ben's basketball games, hear about Ben's birthday, going to see the Globetrotters, Josh beating everyone at the 5K and Sophie's relay doing so amazing at state.  Good things are happening everywhere!  Love and miss you all heaps!  

Much love, Sister Shayne

 

Alright so funny story for the week.  After Mady's interview that night the Elders texted us because they heard us refer to her Grandpa as King George.  The title that his wife and family call him.  He has no royal blood in him whatsoever.  That night we get this message from the elders, "Hey did you say that the man coming to baptize Mady is a king?"  Well we weren't going to pass up this opportunity to make them think that they are NZ royalty.  This is how our conversation went.

Us: Yeah!  Cool aye?

Elders: Yeah that's awesome! So is he like the king of New Zealand or just the king of the place where he is?

Us: Just his area.  NZ has a main ruler and then each different area has a king. It goes back to the original tribes of the Maori culture. 

Elders: Okay is King George a Tipene as well?

Us: Yes.  That is why Lemuel hates living here because he would be next in line.  The oldest in their family is Sister Tahatika and she married into a different tribe so she lost he "birthright" for lack of better term.  Lem is planning on moving back once his son finishes his apprenticeship. 

Elders: Wow okay what region is he king over?  

* This is when I thought we were going to lose it.  There was no way that they were actually believing any of this.  I ran to our area book and flipped to the teaching record of a recent convert who was born in New Zealand to find out an area that we could send them. *

Us: The Whangarei area on the North Island

Elders: Thanks for that!  We're going to invite a kiwi guy to the baptism just to meet him!

* I read that to Sister Kim and we both realized that we had taken it too far hahaha *

Us: Okay time to come clean, we made it all up.  Thanks for believing us though and making that fun for us :) 

Elders: . . . . . Sisters, this means war.

Us: To be fair, he is titled King George.  It's a title that his wife gave him, that is a legit place in New Zealand, and Lem does plan of moving back to NZ.  

Elders: Well in Moses 4:10-11 Satan told Eve 2 truths and a lie so, get thee hence!

Us: You have to give us some credit that that was pretty good.  

Elders: Yeah to definitely got us!

We figured we will wait to tell them that Lemuel has a big brother named Laman when we gain their trust again :) 

p.s.  I forgot this story.  This package was found on Valentines Day at lunch time in front of our door when we came home for lunch.  It was from Sister Kim's boyfriend.  He had the local florist deliver flowers to our flat.  Cute aye?

 

 

The downs, the ups, and the allegory.‏

This has been a strange yet rewarding week.  We started the week by dropping about half of our teaching pool.  People that weren't quite ready, people that wouldn't progress, those too busy for the gospel, and those that dropped us for this reason or that.  When you start a week like that.  It can be a little disheartening.  But there is opposition in all things so where there is a lot of sad then there is also a lot of good.  We had some highlight lessons this week.

The first one was with Jade, a recent convert.  She started reading the Book of Mormon again to read it cover to cover this year.  She kept reading how if you keep the commandments that you will be blessed.  She started our chat with, "What are the commandments?"  That's something that you get taught before you are baptized but she didn't remember them all.  It was fun to see her get so excited about the commandments that she gets to live.  At the end she said, "I can say that I'm living all of those!"  That was a great thing to hear.  She is just awesome.  She has this vision of bringing her whole family into the gospel and I have total faith in her that she will do it. 

 

 

Next was a drop by lesson that we had with Tess.  Tess is partners with a returned missionary, her brother is a member and a return missionary who if fully active, married to a return missionary in the temple and they have 4 beautiful kids.  Tess is a pretty strong Catholic.  We just dropped by and she let us in for a good little chat.  She had a couple of things that she and her partner Jay had had some heated discussions about when it comes to their difference in religions that she asked us.  It was fun to help her understand and see things in the eyes of a Latter-day Saint.  My favorite part of that lesson was when she asked why we baptize by full immersion.  I responded, "Because that is how Christ was baptized."  That caught her attention.  She asked how we know that and I told her that it was in the Bible.  She looked really interested at this point.  I opened up Matthew 3:16 that reads, "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:".  She didn't say anything.  She just picked up her phone and pulled up her Bible.  She read it and said, "Mine says the same thing but it's phrased differently."  We just smiled and testified that that is why we baptize by full immersion." It was a good eye opening lesson for her.  The Spirit was there and just touched her heart every time we gave her an answer and then testified.  That is my favorite feeling.  You can literally see the change in the person.  It's amazing.  

 

 

Highlight number the next one was our lesson with Ronney.  He passed his baptismal interview with Elder Brown and will be baptized this upcoming weekend!  We are all very excited.  The ward has been incredible!  We have had a member come with us to every lesson, people welcome him at church, and others invited him to other activities outside of church.  This last week Brother Taupau took him to play squash (the Australian equivalent of racquetball).  He really enjoyed playing with him.  It's been a major blessing having so many people that are willing to help in the work.    

 

 

That's about it for this week.  It doesn't seem like I have much to report but this has been our greatest week this transfer as far as the work goes.  We have been richly blessed by reading the Book of Mormon as a mission in a month.  We have only been at it for 8 days now and are already through the first 6 books.  Today we read Jacob 5-Omni.  I have to share my realization about the allegory of the olive tree.  As I studied this morning I couldn't help be get so excited about the things that I was figuring out.  Here are my insights from Jacob chapter 5.  It all brakes down into 5 parts: 

• Verses 3-14 talk about the scattering of Israel.  The period before the Savior's time.  
• Verses 15-28 Relate to the time in which the Savior was upon the earth. 
• Verses 29-49 is the Great Apostasy.  You can just feel God's love for the people at that time.  The Lord of the Vineyard wants so desperately for the trees to bring forth good fruit but no matter what the servants do the trees bring forth bad fruit.
  
• Verses 50-75 though give us comfort while it talks about the gathering of Israel.  This is the last time that the Lord will work to bring about much righteousness.  
• Verses 76-77 are about the Millennium.
  

The vineyard is the world.  

The tame trees are the covenant people of Israel.  

The wild trees are the gentiles.  

The branches are groups of people.  

The fruit is the works or lives of men.  

The term grafting means the process of spiritual rebirth thought covenant making.  

The roots signify gospel covenants.  At one point you see how the Lord says that he will do everything in his power to preserve the roots of the tame trees that bear forth good fruit.

I know I probably sound like the biggest dork by saying that finally understanding this all made me a very happy Sister this morning but it did.  I don't know if anyone else struggled with understanding this chapter but if you were like me use this little tips and reread it.  I shared them with my companion Sister Kim and she rejoiced just like I did when we finished the chapter and saw the warnings and power that came from the allegory of the olive tree.  The scriptures are amazing.  I love reading through the Book of Mormon like we are.  It is definitely a challenge to read 15 pages a day but the knowledge you receive is so worth the work.  There are only 239 chapters in the Book of Mormon.  If you read one chapter a day you will finish the whole book in less than a year.  I encourage all of you reading this to start today if you aren't already reading the Book of Mormon and finish it by Christmas.  I promise you will draw closer to the Lord if you read it looking for references to Christ.  It truly is another testament of Jesus Christ.  I love you all.  I love hearing updates about everyone.  I miss you heaps!  Keep the faith :)  

Much love, 

Sister Shayne  

Picture #1 This is a red back spider.  They are more poisonous than a Black Widow.  This was a daring picture to take.  We went back to the house later and it was gone. 

 

 

Picture #2 Me and Sister Kim on Sunday :) 

 

Picture #3 Is the swimming center here in Kalgoorlie.  It's called the Oasis.  They have a 50 meter pool.  We went and took a tour last Monday so I could suffice my craving to swim.  We didn't swim but just being in the chlorinated room and seeing it was enough for me.  Sister Kim just laughed at me all day long that we actually went there.  I was grateful that she was a good sport.  I miss swimming heaps.  That was just the thing I needed to get me through these last 7ish months left.  :)

Sister Kim and I went and were tourists last Monday and took photos of all of the old buildings here in Kalgoorlie.  

Here is the History of Kalgoorlie and the statue of Patrick Hannan who discovered Kal.

 

 And the town hall. 

Historic Hannans Street

 

 

Exchange hotel 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Law courts.  This was the original town hall and post office back in the day

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original Kalgoorlie Markets 

 

Hotel/Pubs

 

* Funny story about the pubs here in Kalgoorlie.  Last week we were trying to give someone directions to a house and we named the streets on which they needed to turn and they looked really lost.  I said, "You know the pub on the left after the market before the primary school?  Turn right there.  The street name is Premier."  To which they replied, "Ooooohhh yup gotcha no worries." 

 

 

 

 

The original newspaper printer :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hotel.  The Australia 

The chapel.  One street over from all of these buildings that I'm sending you

 

 

The following photos are from Burt Street.  Kalgoorlie is made up of 2 major cities.  Kalgoorlie and Boulder.  The Elders serve on the Kalgoorlie side of town and we serve in the Boulder side.  Burt street is the major road in Boulder.  

Burt Street :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 Another Building

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Goldfields war museum

 

 

This is the Court Hotel

 

 

 

 

This is the Grand Hotel :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Palace Theater 

The buildings here are amazing!!!  Most were built between 1898-1909.  

 

 

 

My Yoke is Easy‏

G'day!

I'm going to start this email with a funny story for this week.  We had dinner with the Armstrong and King families last week at the Armstrong's home.  Sister King is the Primary President and Sister Armstrong is her councilor.  While we were eating all of the little kids were talking and joking with each other and the little boy was playing with the baby and said, "It's like she's my own sister."  To which Sister King didn't miss a beat and said, "I have a sister!  . . . An ugly sister."  Again without missing a beat I yelled, "Robots!"  The room got really quiet and then everyone cracked up laughing.  I went bright red and had to explain how much movie quotes are a part of our everyday conversation back at home.  We got a good laugh out of it for the next couple of days. 

This week has been usually humbling.  After our District Meeting last week I just felt like there is more we can be doing out her in Kalgoorlie.  I had a couple things the 2 days following that just seemed to add unnecessary confusion and just overall couldiness (if I can make that a word) in my mind.  I was trying so hard to keep focused on what I needed to do and how I can help the people around me but I was struggling.  During personal study on Friday I just couldn't handle it anymore.  I went in to our bedroom and knelt down by my bed and just began to pray.  I just cried and turned to the Lord to help me.  I don't know why everything seemed to come all at once or why the little things that wouldn't have normally became a irritant to my proselyting efforts but I just needed some extra help.  Prayer works.  If you get nothing else from this email let me stand as a living testimony that God hears our prayers, that the Lord has been down any road that we have been or may be going through, and that through Him we can overcome anything.  I got up from that prayer and felt the power behind the Lord's promise in Matthew 11:28-30 where he said,  "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you crest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  The Lord is so mindful of us.  Each and every one of us.  I know that He is just waiting for us to turn to him.  Even as a missionary we have down days, we have trials, and we need to always remember that we need Him.  His hand will always be stretched out towards us.  We just have to reach up, grab on, and never let go.  If we are farther from God today than we were yesterday we are the ones who have moved.  We may be pretty far off the beaten path but no matter how far we have gone astray the Lords hand is always "stretched out still" (2 Nephi 19:21). 

We had a pretty awesome experience with Brother Timu's friend Andrew this week.  About 4 weeks ago we went to see Andrew.  When we met last time he thought that Brother Timu was joking when he said that he would send us around.  We talked heaps about what we do as missionaries, the sacrifices that we, our families, and friends make to serve missions, and what we do while we are here.  This time when we went he started with, "I just don't see why I can't drink in your church.  Every other Christian faith allows it.  Christ himself turned water into wine at the wedding in the Bible."  After we chatted about that for a minute I said,  "It's not the rule that you have to understand it's where the law came from.  If Moses had come down from the Mount and one of the 10 Commandments was, 'Thou shalt not drink alcohol' would you drink it?"  He replied, "That's different."  I retorted, "It's not!  It isn't the law that you need to look at it is where the law came from.  The Word or Wisdom was given to us from a Prophet of God just like Moses.  You have to find out if that is true.  If you find out that Joseph Smith was a prophet than that law was given to us by God."  He had no come back for that one.  We invited him to church and again had an answer for every single excuse he threw at us.  He didn't end up coming but he did talk to Brother Timu after we left his house.  Brother Timu told us that when he talked to him that Andrew was amazed at how we had an answer for everything.  It felt great to be able to testify not only of the Word of Wisdom and the Prophet Joseph Smith but also about how Christ's Atonement is for everyone and that no matter where you are in your life.  One of my favorite quotes says, "Start where you stand and never mind the past."  

One thing that Andrew asked us sparked an experiment within our companionship this week.  He asked how many people actually open the door for us.  We guesstimated something like 1 in every 5.  He wasn't to impressed.  So when we tracted all day on Saturday I thought it would be neat to keep track of how many doors we knock vs how many scriptures we get to share.  It isn't in our favor.   We knocked on about 118 doors and shared 7 scriptures.  Of those 7 people who were nice enough to let us share a message none were willing to have us back to share more with their families.  I leave a challenge to all member reading this to think of 5 people you know that aren't members and write them down.  The first 5 people that come to mind.  These people mean something to you or you wouldn't have thought of them first.  Pray about those names and give at least 3 of them to the missionaries in your area to visit.  The missionaries don't have to say that you sent them or anything like that.  I can promise thought that if you have been the example you need to be in this troubled world that those people will at least know who the missionaries are because you are a member of the same church.  This work moves so much faster when members and missionaries work together.  Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.  They may not accept but they may come to you later and say, "Hey guess who came to my house the other day, your missionaries!"  And then you have the opportunity to share something with them.  You have nothing to lose. 

  

My last spiritual high for this week came from Sacrament meeting and the Iosefa family.  Sister Iosefa's family had a pretty tragic thing happen to them just before New Years that sent them over to Samoa for a few weeks for a funeral of a couple of family members.  She got home about a week ago and shared a beautiful testimony about how families can be together forever.  It was incredibly touching especially since we had gone over to their house the day after she got home to talk, share scriptures, and give the little comfort we could.  When we visited with her I felt prompted to share D&C 137:10.  That scripture has been with me ever since Grandpa shared it with us at Noah's funeral.   She teared up and told us how one of her cousins that passed away was only 4.  I love how the spirit knows exactly what others need to hear.  When she finished her testimony I saw that her daughter, Sumah, was taking notes of every person who bore their testimony.  She knew every speaker by name and wrote all of the things that stood out to her as they spoke.  Sumah is still in Primary.  When her mom finished I say her write, "Sis Mum - Trip to Samoa means that our family will always be together."  I lost it.  I couldn't help but feel how powerful such a simple sentence was.  The Plan of Salvation isn't referred to as the plan of Happiness for nothing.  The knowledge of where we came from, why we are here, and where we go after this life is what makes everything right.  It is what gives us the determination to carry on.  The faith to take one more step in the right direction.  The eternal perspective that changes everything. 

I love you all!  Keep the faith. 

Much love, Sister Shayne