An Instrument in His Hands: Zone Conference rocks.

Bula Vinaka!

My week started out lovely with an exchange to Makoi with Sister Alaga. It was good to work with her and see the things she and her companion have accomplished in their area. I LOVE Makoi. I would love to serve there someday. And I also love Sister Alaga. We were in the MTC together so there was plenty to catch up on.

We also had ZONE CONFERENCE this week. Which was awesome. Because I really love Zone Conference. We talked a lot about being truly converted and the conversion process and also about the new push on rescuing the Less Active members. Sister Layton shared the example of a young child who fell out of bed. When his mom asked why he fell out of bed, he said...."I wasn't in far enough." Are we in far enough? We need to make sure that we tuck ourselves AND our investigators and members FAR into the Gospel and stay that way. Don't wiggle to the edge... in danger of falling out. No good. Stay well tucked into the Gospel and we'll be ok. :)

A lot of funny things happened this week. First of all, the Elders from Rotuma came in. Rotuma is a little tiny island far far away with nothing. They don't email home for 6 months. 6 MONTHS. And sometimes the boat doesn't come. Then there's no food. And they have to go dig up roots and spear fish and stuff. They said the May AND June boats didn't come and they were scrapin. Also, if the boats don't come with Jet fuel, they can't fly back so they get stuck there for awhile. One Elder had a real funky hair cut. We asked him what happened and he said that he flipped when he got to Nausori and saw himself in the mirror. Apparently they have a tiny broken shard of a mirror in Rotuma and it just isn't cutting it. Ha. We were dying.

Also, we have the FUNNIEST Tongan Elder in our District. I really hope he never ever leaves. This week we were doing a role play for District meeting and he and his companion were asked to be the young couple they were OYMing. He thought about it for a second then said...."Ok, but I'm da wife." We died. His accent makes everything 10x funnier. Also, the other day at lunch, he ordered Apple Pie. For his meal. They asked him how it was. He thought for a minute then said..... "Wheres da meat?" Poor guy.

The crappy part of our week was definitely the sick part. Sister Chong and I were both sick a good chunk of the week. No good. She got a cold then a couple days later I got a way bad fever in the middle of the night. It lasted like 2 days but it's gone now. I think it was strep throat. No fun.

This week we also went to visit a less-active family in our ward. Although we were a bit discouraged because we weren't able to meet with the entire family, we were excited to finally sit down with a few of them. Turns out they are from Wuxi, China! Which is the next city over from where I lived! We spoke some Chinese and a little was coming back. Man, I forgot a lot. Very sad. But we were very excited to find out the son wants to serve a mission. We also found out the Uncle was taking lessons before and only stopped because the missionaries changed. He is excited to start again and promised he would come to church this Sunday. Yay! We have seen all sorts of hidden blessings in focusing on Less Active work.

We are also STOKED for Tui's baptism this Saturday. He is so ready. He keeps telling us how he can't wait for his baptism. After his interview this week he was talking about a mission. He said "Guys go for one year and Girls for 6 months right?" and we were like well actually it's 2 years..... And the expression on his face was priceless. Ha. :) He's been such a blessing to teach though! It's truly a miracle to see how much he has changed his life in just one month. We tell him a commandment and he immediately accepts it and never looks back. He's been truly prepared.

I love being a missionary SO MUCH. I know I always say it, but it's true. It's gonna be a sad day when I take off this badge. Time goes fast! But I'm excited to get the most out of the 2nd half of my mission!

Loloma Levu!

Sista Matheson :)