Share What You Know

Aloha!

This week was quite the blur. Most of our investigators were busy this week so that was kinda sad. But we still have hope that they will progress, just remember to keep Ikaika and the Elzinga Ohana in your prayers, they need help keeping commitments. The frustrating thing about work is sometimes we get caught up in the idea that we are only successful if our investigators are doing everything we want them to, but it's important to remember that everyone has their agency and we can only judge our success on how well we invite them to come unto Christ and utilize his atonement. The same goes for member missionary work as well, we can talk ourselves out of sharing the gospel because we think that they will say no, but that isn't what matters. Success in sharing them gospel is not determined by what they say but instead by how much effort we make to testify. Just some thoughts to have this week!

So Elder Fa'alavaau and I were out doing our thing when we saw a less active washing his car. We struck up a conversation with him and got to know him a little better. We found out he is on probation and just got out of prison. He asked if we could share a scripture and the first one that came to mind was Ether 12:6 which says that a witness shall come after the trial of thy faith. We testified to him that as we remain faithful through our trials that we will gain a stronger testimony and become faithful because of, and not in spite of, hard times. He started to tear up and said that that day he was very tempted to begin his "old habits" and that because of our message he knows that God is mindful of him and loves him. He thanked us a ton and it was a really cool experience.

In other news me and Elder Fa'alavaau are still going strong and trying to spread the word. The members are still great and the work is moving forward, even if it isn't quite as fast as we'd like. Also the our two most solid Investigators just got poached by the Samoan Ward so that was a bittersweet moment. Aside from that the week has been great!!

Have a wonderful week and remember that everyone has the chance to share what they know.

Love you all!
Aloha!
Elder Smith