An Instrument in His Hands: But by the GRACE of God, I am what I am.

Mauri!

This week has been real crazy. Good crazy. We started with hosting the new intake on Monday which I always love! Our sisters are fabulous and I am always so excited to get to know them! Then we did transfers. Transfers were quite the project this time. We basically drove around in the rain in the AP's huge van for 3 days straight. We went to the airport 5 times and the bus stand a good couple times and every sisters flat at least twice! We probably put a good three or four hundred Kilometers on their van.

And my poor new companion came in right in the middle of all the craziness! But she is adorable. Her name is Sister Bauro and she is from Kiribati. She is 22 and a convert of like 5 years. And I just love her. She is so kind and humble and adorable. And she is teaching me Kiribati! I'll be fluent by the end of our time together! But I know that she is definitely here for a reason. The Kiribati is a HUGE tool in our work here.

The sad part of my week was saying goodbye to Sister Chong. Isa, I LOVE that girl. It was real.... REAL hard to say goodbye. Even harder than I thought. I was choking back tears all day and I kind of feel like a part of me is missing. Lucky she is just down the street.

This week was also Diwali! It's a huge Indian holiday where everyone puts lights on their houses, dresses up, cooks, and eats PLENTY sweets. Plenty. So of course we went to the Khanna's to celebrate! It was real fun. Good thing I was dead tired that night from getting so little sleep and running around crazy. If not, we would have been up all night with the fireworks.

We found the cutest new family this week. They are Kiribati and there are soooo many kids. We definitely saw the Lord's hand in helping us find them. We knew what street they lived on, but that's all. We asked a bunch of people (and found another Less-active member in the process) and eventually narrowed it down to 3 houses. So we stood outside and looked for Kiribati signs and listened for Kiribati. We found them. And we were SO excited when they all walked into church the next day.

This week was also Lu's baptism! YAY! We love baptisms. And we love Lu. He is the cutest Chinese man I've met. And I've met plenty. I love him to pieces. And lessons are never boring with him. But it was so good to see how prepared and excited to be baptized he was! I know he will always "do da good tings" so he can "get da long life." :)

This week right in the middle of all the craziness we had district meeting. And Sister Chong gave the training. And it was lovely. During part of the training she asked us to each find a scripture we liked about "GRACE." The scripture I found hit me so hard and I learned a ton from it. Listen to how FABULOUS this is.

1 Corinthians 15:10......

But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Pretty great eh? Here's what I learned.......

1st...... It is truly the Grace of God - or the strengthening and enabling power of the Atonement - that has helped us become who we are. And who we want to be. Grace and the Atonement are vehicles of CHANGE. All we have and all we are we owe to Grace. With the atonement in our lives, we can do things and become people we can NEVER do alone. And that gives me a lot of comfort.

2nd...... His grace was "bestowed" upon us. We don't earn it. We never did. And we can never pay Him back for it. We can only show our gratitude by utilizing it.

3rd......We need to "Labour." We've got to do our part and give Him something to work with. Sometimes it's not easy to use His atonement. Change isn't always a walk in the park. But it is always worth it.

I kept thinking about the Sacrament as well. I loved the talk in Conference by Cheryl A. Esplin and what she said about taking time during the sacrament to recognize the ways the Atonement has strengthened us and enabled us to be more than we could be alone. I'm going to really try and use the sacrament to change and become who my Heavenly Father wants me to be.

This scripture was an answer to prayers for me. I was real nervous and felt a bit inadequate to be the Senior Companion and Sister Training Leader. And I still am. But this scripture gives me comfort and strength in the knowledge that it's not just me. The Grace of God and the Atonement of my Savior will carry me through and make up for my imperfections and weaknesses. And I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. :)

Loloma Levu!

Sista Matheson :)