Malo e lelei! Fefe hake?

This week was a good week! Man its been so cold here and raining like crazy! I honestly had no idea it could get this cold. hahah. 

Anyways the work this week was really good! We met with Masi again this week but she's back to how she was before and we haven't been able to teach her again. We visit her a lot but she always has something planned. She was able to find a job last week and she told us she knows she got that job because we have been praying for her. Hopefully this week we will be able to find a time to teach her. We want to ask her to baptized but its not our baptism... its hers :) we are just instruments in the lords hand! Last week I talked about how important member missionary work is and this week we were able to receive two new investigators because we went around explaining to our members the same thing! One of our members his name is Penieli he brought two of his friends to the chapel for us to teach, Kulisi and Una. Una accepted our invitation to be baptized and he will be baptized next week at out ward conference! Penieli later told us that after we contacted Una and gave him a pamphlet on lesson one he could not put the pamphlet down. He read the whole thing and was so excited for us to teach him again! Hopefully we will be able to meet with Kulisi again and invite him to be baptized as well. 

Not much happened this week but it was a  good week! I hope you all have a good week! 

Ofa lahi atu! 

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SISTA SYLVESTER

Passion fruit! 

5 Months!

Malo e lelei!

Well this week was an exciting week! Congrats to my cute sister for having a baby. I’m finally an Aunt! Yay!!  She’s the cutest little peanut I’ve ever seen. 

Also I hit my 5 month mark on Saturday. That’s crazy! I will be coming home at this time next year! Time is going too fast. 

I first want to share a little story. So in one of the wards we cover they have their ward conference this month. Ward conferences here are a BIG deal. Hahah they have stuff planned everyday of the week. Anyways they've been fasting for us missionaries to be able to find someone to baptize for their conference, and this week they invited us to come to the chapel and eat with them. So we were sitting in Bishop’s office with the ward council eating and I was eating this meat and it was sooooo good!  I thought maybe it was pork or something and then I was on my last piece of meat and someone asked me " Oku ke sai'ia kuli?" which means Do you like dog? and I just sat there!  Haha….. I was eating dog!! And what was worse was that I liked it! hahah It was so good. But after I found out it was dog I couldn't really eat it because the thought just  made me sad. Today for p-day our district leader got a member to cook us a dog and I dont know if I'll eat……but we'll see. 

This week the work really progressed here. Sometimes it gets really hard to work in a small village. Knocking on the same doors everyday, but diligently working truly brings miracles. We visit our members everyday and I cant even begin to explain how important member missionary work is. If it wasn’t for our members we wouldn’t have any teachings. We've tracted here a couple of times and we've received some investigator’s but they eventually tell us they don’t want to see us anymore haha. But this week we received some investigators through our members and one ladies name is Masi. Last transfer me and Sister Palenapa tried to teach her but she never gave us the chance. One of the members told us we should go see her again so we did and she told us to come back. Were able to teach her and the lesson ended with all of us crying because the spirit was so strong. Her husband passed away and she has 4 kids. She doesn’t have a job right now so they hardly ever have money for food. We told our ward mission leader about it and they went out to "uta" (the bush) to get her some vegetables which are like ufi and manioke. We also are going to do a service project for her as a district. We haven’t been able to teach her again but we have an appointment with her tonight and we are going to ask her to work towards baptism and so hopefully she will say yes. 

In Alma 17 we read about the sons of Mosiah and their work as missionaries. In verse 2 and 3 we learn the importance of diligently studying the scriptures, and the importance of much fasting and prayer. Because they did these things they were able to teach by the power of God. I have a strong testimony that when we do what we are asked to do in the scriptures you will see blessings from Heavenly Father in your life. This week was a really good week but also one of the hardest weeks. I didn't let it get me down though. Instead I used the hard times to help me strengthen my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I know Heavenly Father is SO aware of us. At times it might not feel like it, and trust me there have been days where I feel like he is no where to be found but when I turn to much fasting and prayer and study my scriptures the next thing I know there is some sort of tender mercy or miracle right in front of me. So I hope you all know how much you are loved by your Father in Heaven. He loves you so much!! I love you guys too and I’m so grateful for all of you. Thanks for all of your love and support!

I want to challenge all of you to give a referral to the missionaries this week. Have them over for dinner or something and give them someone to teach. Member missionary work is so important. 

have a good week! Ofa lahi atu!!!

SISTA SYLVESTER

Mate ma'a Tonga!

Malo e lelei! 

 This week was a really good week! Not necessarily with the work but I learned a lot for myself. This week we worked a lot with our less actives. Right now we have a family who is working towards the temple which is so exciting! Thats one thing here in Tonga that I really think we need to focus on. There are a lot of members but most of them have not been through the temple. The temple is so important and so we are really trying to help our less actives get to the temple! 

We've been teaching this lady named Fifita and we were feeling really confident with our lessons, but this week she told us that she will never read any of the pamphlets we give her and she doesn't believe anything we've been saying hahah we were really sad. But she told us she enjoys our visits and wants us to keep coming, so we decided we will just continue to share a spiritual thought with her. We are also teaching this lady named Kalo and she said she wants to be baptized but she also told us how she's joined almost every church here in Tonga! haha So she's willing to join ours. We told her that we want her to join not because she can but because she really wants to. 

On Saturday the Tonga Rugby played Samoa here in Tongatapu and it was the first time ever playing Samoa in Tonga. Everyone was gone Saturday. Haha I think that was the slowest day in the mission so far. But Tonga won! So that was cool! Mate ma'a Tonga!! After the game everyone was driving around honking their horns like alllll night! Hahah Thats something they do here in Tonga. You know someone is getting married because they honk their horn all the way to the temple!

Anyways this week I learned the importance of giving everything you have to the Lord and completely consecrating yourself. The Lord has everything of ours, all he needs is our will. I love my mission and i'm so grateful to be here in Tonga. I love you all! Have a good week! Ofa lahi atu!!

-- 

SISTA SYLVESTER

Malo e lelei

Not much happened this week so I don't have a lot to write. Its been super rainy here this past week, so its been kind of cold.  But its nice because we don't have the car anymore so walking around is not as hot. We did a lot of tracting this week and found a lot of potential investigators so hopefully the work will pick up here. Yesterday in sacrament I had to speak in church so that was exciting! On Wednesday I accidentally locked our key inside our MQ  so we texted the zones but of course it was the day they had an all day meeting with President...haha...so we were locked out all day! I felt so bad for my comp! 

I hope you have a good week! I love you all!

My comps birthday was Saturday and she LOVES noodles so I took her to this Asian restaurant for dinner and bought her noodles :) 

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!
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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