Dear Family,
I
have a lot more time this week so I can maybe write a longer letter. So, to
begin with, right after the service project I realize that I got roasted! Man,
I was sunburned so badly. So painful; Ugh!
On Saturday we did a thing with our
investigator from Wales. We took him to one of our member's house. They have a
really good family and spirit about them so I wanted to take M there. We made
Topai and then we sat down and had a family home evening about who God is, our
purpose in life and we talked a lot about prayer and that stuff. The Spirit was
definitely there and I managed to squeeze out some tears when I shared about my
dad and how he relates to my Heavenly Father. I really hate crying and I try to
avoid it as much as possible because my voice gets all weird and I can't speak
well. I tried to show M how much I care. We set him up for the Triple Kill by
inviting him to church and then a lesson in the waiting room of the Temple here
in Tonga. Church didn't end up going as awesome as I liked but I thought it was
a good experience. On Tuesday we took him into the temple, just the waiting
room mind you, and we shared the 3rd lesson with him. Helping us out was a
senior couple, Elder and Sister Deakin. It was super spiritual and the temple
itself has just such a wonderful spirit in it. We talked about Christ and His
purpose and repentance and forgiveness and baptism and the Holy Ghost; all the
good stuff. At this point he needs to start acting, because we are giving him
all we can. To make that one quote, 'I'm givin her all she's got,
Captain." But literally, I’m doing everything I can to let him have
spiritual experiences; it all depends on him right now. I'm persistent and
stubborn but I can't take his agency so hopefully he will use it effectively.
We also spent some time with this week
with a guy named E. He lives way far away, but comes to Liahona everyday for
school. He's on his last year of high school. We had been teaching him for a
while and he was progressing wonderfully! He was praying about the church and
he felt really good about it and we had him set up. He didn't tell him parents
though, and this later caused a really big problem. He ended up telling them
like 2 days before he wanted to be baptized and they said no. They said they
would talk about it later and they did. When they talked about it they pretty
much shut him down, telling him that he wasn't ready and giving him all these
silly reasons why and he pretty much got scared and started doubting and now he
doesn't believe it anymore and it's really frustrating. I have only known this
kid for a couple weeks but he is really cool and he's an awesome kid! He just
needs to trust and I know it's probably really scary to change from your family
and parents, especially when you don't know everything and can't answer what
you believe, but this is salvation!! Luckily God is merciful and will give him
plenty of chances. Maybe I am just a step in a bigger plan. I care a lot about
him and I know this will help him, but that's life. I'll keep trying my best.
I don't have any amazing Tongan culture
things today. Kind of just regular. Oh wait; one thing, Tongans will sometimes
wear slippers on the wrong feet. (Slippers = flip flops) They do this so it
wears down the slipper evenly and gives you maximum use. I have embraced it and
sometimes I wear my flip-flops on the wrong feet and my comp thought I was
crazy until one of the Tongan members told me I’m almost a real Tongan now.
BOOM! Snap crackle pop I win!
So the other big thing is I had some
success this week!! I was able to baptize 2 children of God. These guys are
from a town called Tofoa, they are next-door neighbors and they work for the
same guy. The guy they work for lives in our area, we have been teaching and
working with them for about 3 weeks now. We pretty much go there everyday at 5
for the past three weeks. We have had some struggles, smoking is one of them.
They both a habit, but we have been working through it and hopefully it will
never be a problem in their life again. Even if everything failed, we have
blessed their life with health from not smoking. But they are actually really
awesome people; I have a lot of faith they will become strong steadfast
members. Plus, there is a lot of missionary work to be done with their
families, which are non-members. Both are fathers; in one family the wife
is baptized but inactive, and the other family no one is member. I am really
excited to start teaching their families also. After the baptism one of the
guys came up to me and said "thank you man." He speaks Tongan but
knows a little English. He was so grateful and said he felt like a new
man. It really made me so super happy; I’m glad I can be a part of his
life. And I can see exactly how the Lord prepared him. He was part of church
with his family and they split into two different churches, so his family
followed one of them and he said, "I’ll find my own church" and they
we met him! Look at that. He said he's really excited to bring his wife and
kids and we will start working with him and teaching them. The baptism was
awesome too. It was raining like crazy, so I was standing there, facing into
the rain holding this guy, arm to the square, saying....Kuo Fakamafai'i au, e
Siisuu Kalaisi, pea oku ou papitaiso koe... what a good feeling and experience.
The last thing I want to talk about was the
family from the beginning of the email? On Thursday, we found out it
was the little girl’s birthday on Monday, and they weren't going
to celebrate the birthday for a couple months until they could get to
America, because the didn't have very much money. So the AP's, M and us
teamed up and got balloons, cake, candles, and drinks and went over and gave
them a surprise birthday!! It was so awesome and very happy and there was a ton
of cake to share. They were laughing and loved all the balloons we blew up;
they children thought it was hilarious to pop them, so they were all gone in
like 30 seconds, but they loved it. That’s about it. Ofa atu!
Elder Sitake
