23 November 2015

Season 1: Episode 18  The One with Transfers

Bonjour!

Lol, I have been practicing my French, mostly because Elder Sackley is learning it aaand I try to email him in French...It takes me all week to translate his message.  But you know, whatever.

As per the title of my episode this week:  I am getting transferred, guess I wasn't doing enough work, haha.  At first when I found out, I was sort of glad, we had worked the area we were in very hard for the past four months, and the work was starting to slow down.  But we just had our last lesson with one of the people we are teaching.  And my heart was breaking as I was teaching, cause I realized that I really do love these people.  And my heart was physically hurt because I was leaving him.  As I was explaining to him that this was the last time we would teach him and that we were leaving, tears almost came to my eyes.  Never in my life, have I felt this amount of love for someone after knowing them for only a month.  I got to catch a glimpse of the Saviours love for me personally, and for all of us!

As I've been pondering this whole situation of leaving the ward members and the people I've been teaching, yes it hurts to leave them, but I'm just grateful for the chance that my Father in Heaven has given me to know them.  They have impacted my life so much and have changed me drastically.

In church we learned about how to be better teachers and students.  And the biggest thing that it all comes down to be being an effective teacher is loving the people that you are teaching.  And the perfect example of this is Jesus Christ.  The love that He had for those he taught is immeasurable.  And we learn through His example, how to teach.  Because if we love those we teach, then we are going to come to the lesson prepared already taking the time before hand to create the lesson.  If we love those we teach, we will listen to their questions, so that we can help them to answer their own questions, lots of times that is through the scriptures, but Heavenly Father works through many ways, and He knows what we need.  I use the term "teach" very loosely.  It can apply to anyone who has an influence on some other person at any place or at any time.  Soooo that's all of us!

I love you all and I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior.  That His gospel was lost after the death of his apostles, but was then restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.  And through him we have a living prophet today in Thomas S. Monson, as well as a quorum of the 12 Apostles and Quorum of 70 (see Luke 10).  I am grateful to be here in FLORIDA sharing this message, and I know of its truthfulness, and I say these things (or write) in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Elder Tanuvasa

24 November 2015

16 November 2015

Season 1: Episode 17: The one with 7:90

Hmmm...nothing special really happened this week....other than the miracles we saw daily.  One of those was on Wednesday!  We had just gotten out of a lesson at 7:30 and we didn't really know what to do, as those are the hardest hours to fill as a missionary...So we decided to talk to people on the street.  At first, when we went out we didn't have much success.  We decided to pray, and we prayed for guidance to those who we should meet that night; we prayed specifically that we would meet 5 people and be able to teach them!  And from then, it was just impression after impression, the Spirit guiding us where to go.  Long story short, we taught 7 lessons in those late hours!  The Lord is truly working miracles!

I think that one thing that I told myself before my mission was that I wouldn't care if anyone said no to me.  That it was their loss...But that is so far from the truth, it kills me to see people find the truth and feel the Spirit, but then deny it still!  I feel a burden on my shoulders when they do, but I know that I can only control so much.  I just have to remember that the Spirit is the true teacher, not me.

This is the last week until transfers, so this Saturday I'll know if I'm staying or not!  I'll let y'all know next week ;)

Love ya,

Elder Tanuvasa

9 November 2015

Season 1: Episode 15  The One with My First Gator

Hello, again.  This week was a very exciting week.  Lots of miracles are happening every single day.  This week we had 18 lessons with a member present!  About 16 of them were with priests who came out with us!  It's so awesome to see how excited they all are for a mission and how willing they are to sacrifice their time for the Lord's work!  Really makes me wish that I had gone out with our missionaries more!  It's really cool to see how they have grown as they've been coming out with us! At first, they are a little shy, but by the end, they are always looking for opportunities to bear their testimonies!  Most of them are so good, they even are able to teach some principles!  It's really exciting to see members getting involved in the hastening of the work.

Committed another person to be baptized!  He is very interested and is coming along well!  One of the recent converts in the ward has been meeting with missionaries for a while now and her mother is really interested in the church!  So we've started to teach her, she's seen a lot of good changes in her daughter and is curious as to why, so we are so excited!

Anyways, I love you all!

Elder Tanuvasa

p.s. I saw my first gator, hence the name of this episode, I don't know if the pics came through, if not, I will send them next week.

p.s.s. we are making peanut butter rice krispy treats.  Please pray for our digestive system, lol

11 November 2015

District Meeting

2 November 2015

Season 1:  Episode 15  The One with Halloween

Hola mis amigos y familias

So, last week we had a few of the priests come out with us to a few lessons.  We've actually set up a system where we have at least 2 priests come out with us each week!  It's really good preparation for a mission, and it's really cool to see how good at teaching these guys are.

The first mutual activity each month, the priests/laurels do a Preach My Gospel night where they learn how to teach, and practice teaching as a companionship.  It's super fun and a great way for them to prepare as well!  They've improved so much since when I was first here, haha and they love it!  I wish I had done more things like this before my mission!

Last week was rough, lesson wise.  Had 0 lessons both Friday and Saturday, cause no one wanted the gospel around Halloween I guess...which was unfortunate.

This week we are spending most of our time in a more wealthy part of town, so it should be pretty interesting, haha, oh yeah, on Friday we went to a football game for a couple of the priests, whose senior night it was!  Our ride fell through so we ended up biking 9 miles there, with a slow leak in my front tire, so we had to stop and fill it every 5 minutes.  We had biked 5 miles earlier in the day so it made it a 23 miler...let's just say I slept real well that night, haha

Love you all & hope you are well!

Elder Tanuvasa

26 October 2015

Season 1: Episode 14:  The One with Blood

Hello, Hello!  So this week....hmmm...how do I explain it...for lack of a better term...we just went hard, lol.

We taught 32 lessons and committed 2 more people to be baptized!  We have 4 solid people to be baptized either next month or in December, so the work is hastening here in Palm Harbor.

We were invited to a members high school play on Thursday.....and it was pretty interesting.  The play with the members in it was really good and they did an awesome job.  But the two plays that followed were kinda creepy, haha.  Like one was about the Salem With Trials/Possession, come to find out later that the play was written by students.  So that was...something haha.

Oh yeah, and this week as we stopped to fill up on gas, we found a gas station that RAN OUT OF GASOLINE...like...how!?  Anywho, I thought it was hilarious.

As we were driving home one day, we stopped and gave blood at this mobile bus thing.  Dont' worry, it wasn't sketchy.  It was really nice and the people there were very kind.  But the best part was, they couldn't run away HAHAHAHH so we got to share a little bit of the Restoration with them, which went well, haha.

Love you all,

Elder Tanuvasa