Week 39- Change is good!

Aloha Ohana and Haoaloha,

 

Well, another week has come and gone. Transfers have passed and I'm starting to get the hang of things again. I miss Sister Challis, but she will do good over in Hilo, Hawaii. I like my new companion Sister Haws. She is a super hard worker. We have a lot of similarities but we have stuff to learn from each other which will be super good for me. 

We have been starting up a lot of after baptism lessons. So all the people that have already been baptized can keep learning and prepare themselves for the temple in the future and just keep building their testimonies. 

Then, we started teaching a Samoan, Ace. He is a typical Poly and loves to laugh at everything. It makes lessons a funny experience. We taught him for our second time this past week and were able to give him a Book of Mormon in Samoan. His eyes lit up when he started reading. There was no more giggling. We had him read Moroni 10:3-5 and he was so focused and was loving it. You could just see him understanding the bigger picture of what we have been trying to teach him. Sometimes I don't think he knows some of the English words we use and so he gets lost. I guess I'll just have to learn Samoan. At the end of the lesson Sister Haws invited him to be baptized and he said YES! He has a baptismal date for Oct 26. Sadly, he has decided to go to the Samoan ward in the area and so we have to hand over Ace to be taught by the Elders in that ward :( I'll still go to his baptism but I will miss teaching him. 

Also, we were able to have 2 lessons with Renuma this week. We talked a lot about prayer. We had a lesson and brought a girl in our ward that is her age and it was perfect. A lot of Renuma's hesitancy about joining the church is that the church she goes to has helped her so much already in her life that she doesn't feel ready to let it go. She is praying about baptism for the 26th and is going to read more to find her answer. Then she came to church on Sunday which was so nice since she hadn't come in a few weeks. 

Well, that is about it for here. I'm happy and love it. We have been working out everyday with a personal trainer. I'm sore but happy. Smiling because its a good sore. The Lord has been so good to me. I have so much to learn still and I can't believe that 9 months have already passed! Missionary work is the best work to be involved in. Just as my cousin said, it is the chance we have to lose ourselves in the Lord's work; yet, we find ourselves being filled by His love and grace. God is good always! I love you all! Poco poco yuk! Aishiteru! Alofa ia te oe! Ofa atu! Aloha wau ia oe!

Love Always,

    Sister Cassidy Lang

Week 38- Just Another Week!

Aloha Ohana and Haoaloha,

 

     I feel like so much has happened this past week! Well to start off, I am staying another transfer here in Palehua. My companion Sister Challis is going to Hilo, Hawaii and my new companion is still pretty new to the mission. I have discovered that I am a nervous person... a lot of things make me nervous. Transfers are definitely one of them. Ok, on to my week:

 

      Most of the week was spent on getting Joe's baptism ready. We had lessons with him and his brother a few nights this week to help fully prepare him for his baptism. Then our Mission President ended up coming to our last lesson with Joe and then President Warner interviewed Joe for baptism. Add that to things that make me nervous, having to teach in front of your Mission President. Yep, it was super intimidating having him there with Joe and his brother; but, it ended up being really good. The Spirit was really strong and Joe was paying attention the whole time (he sometimes looses focus). After the interview everything was set for Joe's baptism on Saturday at 4:30 and Joe was really excited! He has changed his life around so much and is ready to make a different life for himself than the one that he had been following previously.

 

    We have started teaching a Samoan guy who is friends with a lot of LDS (Mormons) and is always at basketball and volleyball night. He is super funny and sometimes I'm not sure if he understands me (English is his second language and I'm sure that some of the gospel terms are foreign to him). He just giggles like all Polynesians and it is great. He loves the church and has thought about baptism, the only hold up is his grandma is not super supportive of him leaving her faith. We will keep working with him! 

 

      We also started teaching a less-active family that has been coming back. Then one of the daughter's boyfriend who is always at their house is going to start learning about the gospel too. The daughter told us that she has been trying to help him convert. We ended up teaching him/the family a huge lesson about different questions they have. We talked about the temple, blessings, read 1 Nephi 8 about Lehi's vision of the tree of life, and other topics. He has been going to Institute where he has been learning about the Book of Mormon and has really been liking it! Now we are going to start teaching him the lessons and then help him in his journey in coming closer to Jesus Christ! Being a missionary is great!

 

     As I'm sure many of you know General Conference was this week. (aka church on tv where we get to listen to the modern day Prophet Thomas S. Monson and the 12 Apostles speak to the world about the messages Jesus Christ has inspired them to tell us.) The conference was amazing! I felt so inspired after and realize how important we all are in this world and that we have to be strong to face the challenges that this world will give us.

 

     Well, Saturday was my favorite day! It started off with us watching conference and having a spur of the moment lesson right after. Then we had Joe's baptism which was great! Add it to the list: baptisms always make me nervous. At the start everything was going good; the room was set up, the font was filling, the programs were made; then the people start coming and we have a wardrobe mishap. There isn't the right size for the person who is going to baptize Joe and then Joe had wanted to wear a jumpsuit because he only had one white shirt to wear after the baptism. Well, after we found a new person to baptize Joe and Joe had to wear his only white shirt for the baptismal ordinance everything was smooth. Joe had a lot of nonmember family come and his biological mom and sister are investigationg the church! It was really beautiful and the Spirit was there. Yes, we started late but it all worked out in the end. I learned that sometimes I have to be patient and realized that I can't control everything. I just need to relax (if that is even possible for me) and trust God that things will all work out.

 

      After the baptism neither of us sisters had dinners so we ended up calling the Senior Sisters who had been trying to take us to dinner for a few weeks but we could never find a time. Well, we finally found a time and it was so much fun. I have found my grandmas here on my mission (Sister Erickson and Sister Blaser). We went out to dinner and were laughing the whole time and just enjoying being together and having the gospel in our lives and having this time to serve the Lord. The next morning for the Sunday morning session of conference at 6am we went over to the Senior Sisters' pad and watched conference in our pjs and ate breakfast. I felt at home again and it was so great. In the later session, we went to the church with Raymond who tried his best to listen but 2 hours is a long time. He listened to about an hour and then fell asleep or was distracted. I can't really blame him because I'm pretty sure that I was the same way at the age of 11. 

 

     This week has been great. We worked hard, had fun, were inspired by General Conferecne, and were blessed to witness a baptism! There is nothing better than that (ok maybe my family being here too). I love being a missionary and serving Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father! I pray for you all and love you all! Ofa atu! Aishitiru! Aloha wau ia oe! 

 

Love Always, 

      Sister Cassidy Lang