We had a fun ward activity on Saturday, it was an International
Night, and we were able to see performances of New Zealand, Samoa, Cook
Islands and Mexico! I finally put the pieces together that the Haka is
purely maori, not from any other island. I remember telling a
Samoan-Aussie elder I served around how we had some Samoans teach the
boys a haka for the "all boys dance" for the dance festival and he
sarcastically said, "Samoans doing a haka...that's a disgrace."
...Because everyone still knows the haka. But I realized that what they
did at the first dance festival was a mix between a haka and a Samoan
dance. Good to know! Also after seeing the performances, I remember a
girl in my contemporary dance class at BYU telling me that she was in a
polynesian dance class...and decided I could now add that to my
repertoire after my mission. I'm sure I'd love it, ha.
Not an amazing week, struggling to set up appointments. And members
are more than willing to be fellowship and help out with teaching...but
we really need their help in finding, and they all tell us, "oh, we
hardly talk to non-members." Sick of the excuses. Ha. But we had a
really good lesson with one investigator yesterday. She doesn't have a
belief in God (she's from China, her husband got baptized a few years
ago). She started coming to church, but said she doesn't feel anything
special and we've been struggling to get her to read the Book of Mormon
and exercise her faith. So we invited her to the Visitors' Centre and we
watched the Joseph Smith movie, and at the end, we could both tell how
much she had changed. She said she gained a lot of faith from watching
it and was able to understand more and said that Joseph Smith was an
amazing man. We gave her a specific chapter to read from the Book of
Mormon and she was so anxious to say "Yes, I'll read it." We're so
excited for the progress she is making, and SO thankful to have the
Visitors' Centre and how powerful it can be to have lessons here.
I read Elder Bednar's talk this week about the Power of the
Priesthood. So powerful. I especially loved how he said you can break
your priesthood covenants by not doing anything, and I thought really
applies to everyone, not just priesthood holders. Just think about
Christ and how He was the perfect example. We shouldn't wait for someone
to come ask us for help, we shouldn't wait for someone to come ask us
about the gospel, there are certain things that we have to take the
initiative on. The gospel really is all about doing and being at work,
that's what it takes to be a true disciple of Christ.
Also, I feel like I've had it reinforced to me several times this
week what the feelings of the Spirit are. (If anyone wants to read an
amazing talk on the Holy Ghost, read "Unleashing the Dormant Spirit" by
F. Enzio Busche. Or maybe it's Enzio F. Anyway, it's on byu.speeches.edu.
So good) In that talk it says how being unhappy is not of the Spirit
and then I read another talk that says having a bad attitude is not of
the Spirit. Kind of a big slap in the face that I have a reason to be
happy every day! I have been happy the last couple of weeks, just when I
started training and we were double shifted in, I was way stressed and I
think it let it affect me too much. Anywho, I decided I will be a happy
camper the rest of my mission, no matter what. Or at least try to.
When we find out someone is from China, and I say, "Ni Hao" they always think it's really funny. Try it sometime.
Don't know who's at the Lake this week, at least Dad, Mom, Megan
& Danny, Mike & the girls and Ariel. A bit jealous. Have fun!
It's officially winter here and I can't go outside without wearing
leggings or tights.
Ofa atu,
Sister Mullen
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