Family History is the Key

This week has been AWESOME! Me and Elder Redd set a goal to push ourselves to the very end of the day! Talking, teaching, inviting, and sharing about the Gospel has blessed our area sooo much! 

This week also has been focused on Family History. President Hannemann has asked a lady who is super good at family history (and is a literal machine when it comes down to family history) to help us use that in our work to open the hearts of the people we talk to everyday. So we went out with her on Tuesday to a couple houses of our recent converts and investigators to gather their Genealogy. We were satisfied and very grateful that Sister Shwankie (Family History Lady) took the time out to come help us in the work. Fast forward to that next morning. She calls us and tells us that she has talked to our bishop and has got a list of less-active people he wants us to visit and try to use Family History. So we spent the entire day on Thursday sharing the message of Family History to these less-active members and a couple more of our investigators! WE TORE IT UP! Seriously everyone we went and talked to were so open to the idea of Family History and wanted to badly to learn more! We are hoping this week to reactivate many people as well as gain some new investigators! 

Elder Redd and I have also been teaching a Baptist Preacher. Very interesting to see his idea of worship and of the gospel. He told us that all we have to do is accept Christ and we are saved. We talked and brought up the BoM. He told us that the only true book is the Bible. We discussed for a while until I built up the courage to just bear witness of the BoM. Holy cow. I have never felt the spirit so strongly before. I couldn't control the words coming out of my mouth! I bore testimony that the book was true and that only through reading and having a true desire will he understand if the book is true or not. Boom Uma. He then accepted to read and says that he will truly search it out. Hopefully that same spirit will testify to him of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. 

Other than that the week has been full of work, work, work. Nothing better to help strengthen a testimony! 

Thank you all for your love and prayers! I keep you in mine as well! Have an amazing week!

Alofa Atu

Elder Bethea 

Patience Brings Blessings

This week we were able to have a Baptism! She was an investigator when we got to the area but we had the opportunity to baptize her. She is amazing and it was awesome to have her husband perform the baptism.

This week was a slow week until the very end. The entire week we were walking and knocking as many houses as we could trying to find new people to share the gospel with. I literally walked through my sandals! But we found no one who was super interested in what we had to say. That got me super discouraged and down about the work. So I decided to fast and pray for the opportunity to find the people who have been prepared to hear our message. It was long and hard to try to find people, but we kept going and kept knocking while relying on the spirit to show us where to go. While we were walking on Saturday (having no success the entire week) a car pulls up and a guy yells at us, "Hey I am a member but none of my family is! Come over later today and teach them!" then drove off to do his shopping. We ended up going over and the family was interested but was busy. So we talked a little and set a date to go back! Then Sunday comes around and we go to teach the Gospel Principles class and there was a new guy! Turns out he is Seventh Day and really wants to get baptized because his wife is a member and they just had a son! So we taught him and are going back on Tuesday! It was amazing how Heavenly Father was just doing as He has always done and was testing our faith! And I guess we passed! So humbling to see the blessings from doing all that you can THEN He will bless you. We have to prove ourselves before we can receive the blessings we desire!

Other than that this week was long and hot, but I love these weeks because they make me rely on the spirit so much more! And I end up with a stronger testimony and a better tan!;)

Thank you all for the love and support this week! Keep strong and know that I love you all!

Alofa atu

Elder Bethea

I am a secret agent

This week was awesome! I loved the entire thing! We were able to sneak in a BoM to a young mans house because over here the parents determine whether or not they can join the church and his family is against it so we got to sneak a BoM into his room while his parents were sleeping! Crazy!

This week was super awesome! I could feel my Saviors love the entire week. Just one highlight because I don't have very much time. This week we were able to give a blessing to a young woman who is not a member. Her cousin who was called us over and asked for us to help bless her and to cast out a evil spirit that was inside of her. As we walked up the entire family was around her, and when they saw us they looked at us with hope that we would help her. My mind finally got why they were looking at us like that. We were holding a power that no other Church claims. That is the priesthood. After we blessed her we asked her cousin who was a member to keep us informed. But as we were outside talking to her cousin, she started to talk and interact. Her cousin told us that she hasn't been able to do that for a couple of days and that is the fist time she was able to utter something out!

I testify of the power of the Priesthood and all that it can do for us. I love this gospel and know it is true. I hope you all have an amazing week and know that your Father in Heaven loves you all. I know Gods lives and blesses us all constantly.

I hope you all have an amazing week. I love you all and thank you all for your prayers and support.

Alofa Atu

Elder Bethea

Walking is fun

This week has consisted of walking. With adding our new area it gives an even bigger place to walk. I have no reason to complain because by walking it gives us an amazing chance to talk to as many people as possible! 

The Spirit has helped so much this week. We were given the chance to teach some people this week who needed a little taste of what the gospel can bring. We met with a family from Pavaiai 1st ward that the Elders before us had found. They live so very far in the back of the area that walking there is awesome! It gives me and Elder Redd the chance to truly invite the spirit to be with us when we get there. When we got there we were invited in with open arms! The people truly love this gospel! Before I even knew what was going on she talked to us about her beliefs about God, and had made an opportunity for us to teach her about how God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all different beings with the same purpose! After that we got to teach a little bit more about the Restoration and through that we were able to receive truths that were lost for Centuries! The spirit was strong there. After we called to set up another appointment with them like they had asked when we left. They told us they were going to be busy for the next two weeks! But I guess that didn't satisfy Elder Redd because the next day we went up and visited the family but it was just the father that was home. We taught the importance of the Book of Mormon and he expressed how he wants time but wanted us to come back the next week! Amazing how the spirit will work in their hearts to show the people we teach the importance of the gospel!

Other than that this week was filled with amazing studies about Joseph Smith and the Restoration on the Gospel. I hope you all know about the history and the true and enduring faith that the saints had of this gospel. I know that this gospel is true and I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet who saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. This gospel is true. I know it. 

Thank you everyone for your love and support this week. May God be with you until we meet again.

Alofa atu 

Elder Bethea

Recognizing all the Savior has done.

This week was full of gratitude for all that my Savior has done for me out here! I love the constant comfort given when I am down. I love the humbling experiences I receive when I am prideful. And most of all I love His atonement and how that enables all of us to live with our Father in Heaven again.

This week we were able to baptize Sofia! That was an amazing experience to help another one of our Sisters enter into the strait path that leads her back to our Heavenly Father! She was truly prepared for that moment and I will never forget her amazing testimony about this gospel and how she felt about it! It is truly amazing to see what this gospel can do to change peoples lives for the better!

We also were able to meet with some of the investigators from Pavaiai 1st ward and they were awesome! One is now on date for the 21st of this month and we are excited! Sis Leilua was prepared so well by the other missionaries, we are just so excited to come and help her progress from where the other two elders left off.

Last but not least my awesome experience being a traffic cop for a couple of minutes. We were just walking around our area inviting all of the members to come to our baptism the next day! After our very first house we visited we were walking by an intersection and a ladies car had stopped working for some reason. She tried to get out to talk to us but her car started to roll so she just opened the door and asked for our help. So we walked over and soon the cars started to build up behind her! So I took the chance to fulfill my childhood dream of being a cop and started to direct traffic and help move it along! Truly awesome seeing how we were at the right place at the right time to help out! That is our job really is to help everyone in anyway we can!

Thank you all for your love and support this last year and I pray that that will continue into this next coming year! Continue in faith and never look back!

Alofa atu

Elder Bethea