A week full of changes!

Malo e lelei! 

Man this week has been such a good week! A week full of changes but they've all been good changes. On Thursday I got my new companion and she is so cute !! Her name is Sister Fotu and she is from Tonga. Man she is such a hard worker. It’s been such a great learning experience for me. We went out tracting the other day and I’ve been so used to my trainer starting the conversations and I just jump in every now and then, but it was all me this time. Even though my comp is fluent in the language she was so new to all of it, and so it was all me! I can honestly say Heavenly Father is aware of everything and I definitely witnessed that this week! I still have a long way to go but I’m taking everything one step at a time with a firm prayer in my heart that Heavenly Father will bless me and my companion as we work together here in Havelu :) 

On Saturday we had the opportunity to listen to Elder KoliPoki (Grobert) and it was so cool! For those of you who don’t know who he is he the elder that the "Other Side of Heaven" is based off of. Him and his cute wife both spoke to us and shared stories of when they were mission presidents here and also when he was serving here. President asked me to say the prayer, which was terrifying, haha because Kolipoki's Tongan is so good, and he is also a Palangi, but I did it and he even thanked me after for it. So that was cool! On our way back to our area they dropped our district and some other missionaries off at the Hospital to visit an Elder who is there because he is so sick. He’s in complete isolation so we just stood outside his window and sang Tongan hymns to him and visited him. Man it was so fakaofa! 

 

This week I’ve been reading a talk called "The Fourth Missionary" and it is such a powerful talk! They apply it all to missionaries but the principles taught could help anyone. If you have a chance to read it you should! It talks a lot about who we can become and why. Your life’s greatest work is ....YOU! Choose who you want to become, and with the help of our Savior Jesus Christ you will soon realize you are powerful beyond measure and can become as he is. 

I am so grateful for my mission and the things i'm learning here. Its the best decision I have ever made and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Even the hard days, I love them! hahah 

Oku ilo'i i he taimi te tau tauhi faivelenga 'a e ngaahi fekau ' a e otua te ne tapuaki'k kitautolu. Oku ou ilo'i oku ofa 'a e Tamai  Hevani iate kitautolu.  Oku ou ofa atu kia motolu pea oku ou fakamalo atu kia motolu!  Ofa Lahi Atu! 

-- 

SISTA SYLVESTER

Waiting for our new companions

The best picture I could get of Kolipoki hahah

I got to see my MTC friends!

My new comp Sister Fotu (on the left)

This is Joel Tuilava (who lives in our home ward and was Kenidee's sunday school teachers') brother and sister in law.  They went to visit with Kenidee to see how she was doing and then brought her dinner.  It made her feel so good!  We love the Tuilava family!!!!!  Some of the kindest and most generous people we know.  I am so thankful for them all and there is A LOT of them!  

Transfers!

Malo e lelei!

This week was a really good week! It was the last week of transfers so we pushed ourselves to work really hard. Also I've been out for 4 months. Crazy! Yesterday we had a stake musical fireside that us missionaries put on. It was so cool! The theme was " Ha'u o mamata" (Come and see). As a district we each invited ward members to sing and then we also asked recent converts or less actives to bare their testimonies. Majority of the program was singing. It was so cool to teach through music and the spirit was so strong!

Today is Transfer day and i am staying Havelu. Woot woot! I love it here haha. My companion is leaving me :( and president told me that he wants me to train one of the new missionaries. WHAT! haha. I was shocked because i just barely finished my 12 weeks and now im gonna train a new missionary. Ive been praying long and hard for this next transfer, hoping for some changes to really help the work here. This wasn't the answer i was expecting but man does the Lord work in mysterious ways. I know i will be the trainer but im so excited to learn from a new missionary so we can both help the work here in Havelu progress. President came to our last district meeting this week and he talked about Fear and Faith. When we have faith we cant have fear, and if we have fear we are not able to have faith. That was also a huge answer to my prayers. Learning a new language is scary and there are times that ive been too scared to open my mouth. But as missionaries its so important that we have faith and loose all sense of fear. We need to trust in Heavenly Father and his plan for us. So although im a little nervous to train im ready to put all my faith and trust in the Lord. I just love the mission because im constantly learning every single day! I love learning new things hahaha. Things that i will be able to keep with me for the rest of my life. I know this next transfer will be a big learning experience but if the Lord trusts me with one of his missionaries i can definitely trust him that he will help me along the way. 

Not much happened this week and i dont have a lot of time, but im so grateful for all of your love and support. You guys are the best!! Have a great week! Ofa Lahi Atu!!

-- 

SISTA SYLVESTER

A week full of learning

Malo e lelei!

This week was a week full of learning experiences. On Tuesday me and my companion had the opportunity to go to Liahona High School for a missionary workshop with President and Sister Tuione. Liahona High School is owned by the church. Members from this island and all of the other islands are able to come live in the dorms and go to school here. It was their mutual activity and my companion and I along with two elders were able to come and participate in a panel for the students to ask us questions about missionary work. They also only speak English in this school so that was nice because I was able to answer the questions and express how I really felt and they could understand me ha-ha. Anyways the elders that came with us are Elder Lavaka and Takelo. Elder Lavaka is from Australia and he is a really well known professional rugby player. He gave up a huge rugby contract to come serve his mission and he is one of the most humble missionaries I have ever met. What we didn't know is that he’s a convert to the church and so to hear his story was really cool too. It was a great experience for all the kids to hear his story because most of the boys hear play rugby, but to hear why he decided to go on a mission was cool. After that me and my companion went with Sister Tuione and all of the young women. They were able to ask us questions about missionary and why we decided to serve a mission. It was a great experience one because I was able to express how much I love my mission and how much its changed my life, and two it helped remind me why I’m here and the importance of missionary work. Sometimes when times get hard here on the mission we forget to recognize and remember why we are here, and that is to invite others to come unto Christ :) 

I had the opportunity to go on two exchanges this week and it was fun to work in other areas. I was able to work in Haleleva, and Sopu. I love doing exchanges because that is when I learn the most and when my language and faith is tested the most. Going to new areas where they don’t know how long you’ve been out or what you are capable of ha-ha. That’s when trusting in the Lord is very important. It’s always important, but that’s when my testimony has been strengthened a lot. I love being pushed and struggling to express how I feel. Ha-ha it sounds weird but I’m so grateful for the hard things I’ve been through and the hard things I will continue to go through. Heavenly Father is so aware of all of us and he knows us personally. He knows what we need to go through to make us stronger and better missionaries! 

Anyways I love and miss you guys! Not much happened this week but I’m loving it here. Next week is transfers so we'll see what happens. Have a great week!! 
Ofa Atu!
--- 

SISTA SYLVESTER

Sister masima is from Hawaii she is serving in Sopu right now and there is the best pizza place so we bought ourselves a pizza hahaha!

My favorite elders bought us icecream. Elders Takapu and Talisa

Sunrise the other morning while running in Sopu

Falala ki he Otua!

Malo e lelei!

I first want to answer one of your questions mom. Yes it does get cold here! haha. I didn't think it was possible but man this week it was so cold. On Tuesday we woke up freezing in our MQ because they don't have windows here, they are just like glass panels so our windows are always open. It was so windy and raining like crazy. I have never seen it rain so hard before. We still went out and worked Tuesday  but I'm pretty sure we were the only ones outside. Every house we went to no one was home and we would just stand outside calling for them. My comp and i love working in the rain so we were having so much fun! When it was time to go home we got a call saying we needed to stay inside because it was a cyclone storm warning. So Tuesday and Wednesday we had to stay inside because the storm was so bad. When we woke up the next day everything was flooded the roads, peoples yards. It was crazy!  

The work has been kind of slow this week. I feel like we've been to every little house in our area. There is a church here in Tonga called the Weslyan church and all of their missionaries have been warning their members to not let the LDS missionaries talk to them. They said we have evil spirits with us. So when we go to their houses and call to them we can hear them inside their house saying "Shhh its the missionaries" hahah so that makes it kind of hard to talk to people. We are working with one family and i think I've mentioned them before, but her husband died and she really wants to marry a Mormon. We've visit them a lot but we have yet to teach them a lesson. We've planned like 3 FHE lessons with them but she's canceled all of them.  Its been weeks of us just visiting her but we don't feel like we should drop them. We are so close getting through to them. This week we visited them and the mom has been super sick. She was sharing everything she's feeling and going through and i just felt like we needed to share a spiritual thought about faith. Next thing i know my companion was feeling the same way and asked me to share a scripture on faith. I did and we both bore our testimonies and it was just a really cool experience. When we left the house we both shared with each other how strong the prompting was for both of us from the spirit to talk about faith. 

Its so important that we keep ourselves worthy enough to recognize the spirit in our lives. We might not ever get the chance to start teaching this family but because we both were in tune with the spirit we were able to hopefully plant a seed in their lives that will eventually lead them to the gospel. Anyways I hope you all had a good week! Ofa Atu!

Last P day we had a water fight in the rain! 

Pictures of the rain and us working in the rain

SISTA SYLVESTER

Last P day we had a water fight in the rain! 

Pictures of the rain and us working in the rain

Our Fafanga brought us 3 pizzas cheese bread and spaghetti for 2 of us!!!  hahah! :)

If you want to BE. Give it away!

Malo e lelei!

Well last week was so fun Skyping my family! Im a little late on the Mothers day shout out but I am so grateful for my mom and all she does for me. She's my best friend and I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for her! I love you mom!

I didn't get a chance to email last week because we were skyping but two weeks ago we had a  baptism for our investigator Fane :) It was a really cool because it was a zone baptism so the elders had baptisms too and we were able to have one big program. 

This week I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with the Sister Ap's it was fun! I was in the area of Kolomotu'a and its way bigger than Havelu. We tracted the whole day and we were able to get so many new potential investigators. There area is also right next to the beach so for exercise that morning we were able to go run along the beach. Man the beaches here are so pretty! 

Yesterday we had stake conference and we had the opportunity to watch a broadcast that was broadcasted to all of the Pacific Islands. Elder Pearson spoke first and he talked about "standing firm in the storms of life" It was really cool because I was really able to relate to what he was saying because as a missionary I've had a lot of personal "storms". He talked a lot about faith and trusting in the Lord. Something he shared is "Trust is faith in action". Sometimes we tend to put those two things together but we trust in the lord we are putting our faith in action and we are acting on that promise from the lord that when we have faith and trust in him he will bless us.

Not a lot happened this week. We've been doing a lot of tracting and working with less actives to help us find new investigators. So we are praying that we will be guided by the spirit to those who are in need of His message! 

I want to share something that dad shared with me that has really helped me while I've been out here. The act of "giving it away!" Sometimes we expect more than what we offer but if we want to BE something we have to give it away. 

"If you want to "Be" - give it away!"  If you say you want to "Be" happy, you have just declared to God, the Universe and yourself that you don't have it.  If you want to "Be" happy, give it away.  Giveaway happiness and you are telling God, the Universe and yourself that you have "IT!"  You can't give away what you don't possess.  It goes along with the scripture, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  If you want appreciation, compassion, peace, love, the Spirit, inspiration, joy - GIVE IT AWAY!

Just a little quote to ponder this week. Thank you for all of your love and support. You guys are so awesome! Keep being examples to those around you. Continue to love and have compassion. Remember if you want to BE give it away! 

Ofa Lahi Atu!!

-- 

SISTA SYLVESTER

Last P-day it rained on us while playing volleyball it was so fun! 

 

Malo e lelei!

This week was such a good week! My time here keeps getting better and better! Even the hard days. This week again me and comp went out tracting. We didn't have much success but it was a great experience! Haha we went around giving out pamphlets and pamphlet in Tongan is "tohi tufa" but me being a palangi and not really knowing the language when we were talking to this lady i called it a "tohi tafu' and "tafu" in Tonga is like this paper they use to burn in fires to get the fire big. So basically i told the lady to use the pamphlet to burn in the fire. Hahah it was so embarrassing. Me and my comp walked away and we just laughed! 

My companion and I are the STL's for two zones here on the main island. Its been a fun experience! We also have a car which is nice! Hahah except for everything is opposite here. They drive on the opposite side of the road, the steering wheel is on the opposite side too. Even the handle for the blinker is on the opposite side and i always forget so whenever we go to turn i always turn on the windshield wipers instead haha! People know its us when were driving because our windshield wipers are always on. My comp always makes fun of me haha! 

Tonight we are having family night with this darling family in our area. The dad died last year and the mom has been working so hard to provide for their family. She has four kids and two of them have come to church a couple of times. I always love going to visit them and the kids really want to take lessons but the mom doesn't think she''s ready right now. Hopefully after tonight she will  be ready!

My companion and I have been studying Christlike attributes. This week was virtue. Its been such a testimony builder to study the attributes of Christ. I know I've said it before but when we strive to be more like him it makes a difference in our lives. Remember to be an example to those around you and strive to change each and every day! 

Not much happened this week but it was a good week! Tomorrow is zone conference and me and my companion have to teach. That will be fun! I cant wait to talk to you guys on Mothers day :) Have a great week! Ofa ATu!

-- 

SISTA SYLVESTER

My comp and sister Vakalahi. Sister Palenapa trained both of us.

Getting our car washed

Me and my comp 

Transfers! 5-1-2017

                                                                                                       
We had transfers today and I am staying in Havelu with my trainer Sister Palenapa :) I cant believe i've already been in Tonga for over a month. Time is flying by!

However, this week felt kind of long because the work has been kind of slow lately. We get most of our investigators from the members because its really hard to proselyte here. I was kind of bummed that we didn't have much work to do and so Ive been praying for some kind of way that we can pick the work back up. On Friday I was talking to my companion and I told her that we should try proselyting in this area. She told me how it doesn't really work but she was willing to try. We got lots of pamphlets and Saturday morning we went out for a couple of hours to place the pamphlets. We started on one end of our area and went all the way to the other end. Within two minuets we were able to give someone a pamphlet and make an appointment to come back and teach. After we both kind of looked at each other because we were surprised and we were so happy it gave us the motivation to keep going and we went hard. Almost every house we went to we were able to make an appointment to come back. It was so cool! The very last house we went to is this older guy named Kepu. He is such a great guy! He invited us into his house and we were able to share a message with him and he asked us to come back and teach him on Sunday. After church we were headed to his house and he called us. We thought maybe he was going to cancel but he was calling to make sure we were coming. We thought that was cool haha we've never had someone call to make sure we were coming!  Anyways we got there and he had cleaned up his house and prepared drinks for us. He told us that after we left on Saturday he could not wait for us to come back again on Sunday. He told us how his daughter died in an accident last year and he has felt so lost. He said he's seen us around but he's been too embarrassed to ask us questions so when we stopped by he said he knew god was telling him something. Yesterday we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was so strong. He asked us lots of questions and every time he spoke he just cried because he was so happy. He also kept thanking me for trying so hard to speak the language. I loved hearing that because sometimes teaching is so hard because the Tongans wont look at me when I talk to them because I’m a Palangi.  I’ve gotten used to it so i'm okay with it now haha but yesterday was a really cool experience and to have him thank me for trying was such a tender mercy!  We are teaching him again on Wednesday and we are hoping he will want to be baptized. 

On Thursday my companions sister got Married and president let us go to the sealing. It was fun! I’ve never been to a sealing before and it was all in Tongan haha but it was a cool experience! 

I learned this week that theres always more you can do! The Lord has prepared people for us and they are waiting to hear our message we just need to do our part and get to work. Never hesitate to share the gospel. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Ofa Atu! 

Our last district meeting. We also celebrated Elder Peti's birthday. Haha they're all doing their Haka faces!​

This is an example of what it looks like when we go to fafanga at a members house. They place like 7 plates of food in front of you and then they watch you eat. They dont eat with you haha!

One of my favorite members daughter :)

--SISTA SYLVESTER