Week 40 - Sweatin Bullets!

Elder Kim and I at a tongan baptism. yes they gave me a whole plate of cake and expected me to eat it all... I shared but ate most of it... Things Hawaii has taught me... being full is a mental state. 

Aloha ohana and haoaloha,

Well, I feel lke so much has happened this week. Ok, Ill start with Tuesday and go that way throughout the week... sorry if this gets confusing. Tuesday morning I get a phone call from our mission president, President Warner. Basically, I found out that I am the Sister Trainer for our zone. Originally we didn;t have ione and then Sister Clayson (she has been out the longest) brought it to his attention and he asked her to be the trainer; then, he realized that he had originally wanted me to have the oprotunity to learn more and so asked if I would do it. I said yes, but I feel like I have no idea what a Sister Trainer does because I missed the meeting at the beginning of the transfer... what i do know is that I look out for the sisters in my area (they all happen to live with me - convenient), help where I can, serve them, love them, and be a good example for them. Im excited for this opprotunity to grow and I feel connected to my sister, Hermana Lang (she is serving a mission as well in Cusco, Peru and has been the Sister Trainer there in her mission). Even though we are miles apart we are still on the same path of learning and growing in the same direction. Ok that was my morning, that night we had a super awesome lesson with Ace. We went to Brother Magaoay's house and we asked Ace about his reading of the Book of Mormon. He loves it and retold us the first 10 chapters which he has read. We had asked him to read a specific chapter but he forgot so he started at the beginning and loves it! We talked a lot about repentence and he is so good and really wants to be baptized to have his past mistakes gone forever and he can be completely clean again. He is going to go to the Samoan ward this week and see if he likes it. 

Wednesday: Mission Tour- Elder Schwitzer came and spoke to us as a whole mission. All of the missionaries came (minus the ones on the island of Hawaii) so there were so many missionaries all together which never happens because we are all usually on seperate islands. Then, my first thing to do as Sister Trainer I had to go to an extra meeting and it was really good. We talked about how we can receive revelation. There are 3 Ps to it: 1. Purseue the facts 2. Ponder the Solution 3. Pray for Confirmation. Another thing that he said was that we have to find where each person is and then we have to take the gospel/ Jesus Christ to them. We have to teach wherever they are. We cannot expect people to take 20 steps all at once so we have to find them and then help them make one step then the next and then you keep helping them grow. How do you do this? You love them! At first I was overwhelmed by the amount of growing that I still have to do. Then I realized I was taking the wrong message away.. I just need to be a little bit better everyday. So that is what I am trying to do- be a little bit better than I was yesterday. 

Thursday: We had 2 really good lessons with a recent convert and then a less active family! We taught the recent convert with her member boyfriend about the Plan of Happiness. They both want to serve missions and we asked them if they will bring a friend with them to the next lesson and they both have people in mind that they want to invite. Then the less active family, I have been there a few times and the husband always goes in the back room but the past 2 dinners he has been coming out and having our lttle lessons. It has been really good to see him coming around more. 

Friday: We found one of our former investigators and werre able to talk with him. He wants to learn more so we have a lesson with him next week! 

Saturday: We were out hitting some pavement (aka walking a ton and trying to find people at home to see if they would still be interested in learning about the church. Well we weren't finding anyone home so we started walking down this huge hill that we had just walked up then there are 2 girls on the corner just tlkaing. We started talking with them and they are the nicest girls. They love leawrning about Jesus Christ. We found out that they are sisters and are 21 and 17. One is a bit more religious than the outher but both want to learn more. We were able to pray with them and then invite them to be baptized. They were interested and want to learn more. We have a lesson with them next week! 

Sunday: Is always my favorite day. I love being able to go to church and to feel the Spirit. Even missionaries need a spiritual boost every week. By the time the weekend cmoes Im usually so tired that I cant wait til sunday even though Sunday is still a busy day for missionaries. 

The work is picking up and I love it! We work from 6 to 10:30 and I am so exhausted. yes I feel overwhelmed a lot, but I keep praying to be able to handle everythng. I keep wondering if I will ever feel on top of everything. Probably not because if I have any spare time I usually do something else to add to my plate. (aka make banana bread or now pumpkin squares) ahha. Im always getting requests for more banana bread all the time. I love the work, I know that we will see miracles. God is good always! I love you all. Aishitiru! Alofa ia te oe! Ofa atu! Pueko pueko yuk! Aloha wau ia oe! 

Love Always, 

    Sister Cassidy Lang