Week 24 - Service = Love

Dearest Mother :)

Things here are goin alright! Still haven’t transferred yet but I transfer out (most likely) on Dec 15th. However the mission office said to just send it straight to them because packages start getting stolen around Christmas!

With Elder Hansen

Again this week was very inspiring after Elder Nash's talk. However success just didn’t seem evident. Me and Elder Ballif only found 1 new investigator who’s kinda flaky haha! Ask Hema, Helam, Hevynn and Bo...all RM's know about flaky investigators. Our baptismal dates all dropped through the floor and we can’t seem to find them. However God saw fit to bless us in other ways. Jerry C is the oldest child in his family (I teach 4 of the 6 siblings) and he's less active.

 

But he is a super nice, and even spiritual, guy. It’s just that things have been hectic in his life. Now for some reason we were prompted to see him. He's super open to us and he is loving the messages we share. I don’t think I will see him go back to church while I’m here but when he's ready I know that he will. They gave us food, hat warmer thingys, more food, we do everything! The thing that struck me this week is that I was focusing so much on finding people who never heard about the gospel that I was a bit blind to those who were wandering off the right path. My goal this week is to not only find some new people, but to help those who have fallen off that narrow path.

Anyways, other than that nothing really new has happened. Elder Gubler asked me and Elder Pau'u to do a dance number and 2 singing numbers in the mission conference...we have 2 weeks to prepare haha! Oh well, guess those things just sort of happen.

Congrats to Stanford! Brother Farmer in the ward loves to keep me updated on games haha! Elder Pau'u is a USC fan so I got to rub it in his face yesterday. He was lowkey mad haha.

With Elder Pau'u

Lance is at the top of the BYU coaching list huh? I'm not surprised! Well if he takes it then congrats and he certainly deserves it :) If not then I will still be happy because I will get to see him after the mish! Looks like things are looking good for him and it couldn’t happen to a better man!

Well this might be my last week in this town, my one and only area since I landed in Indiana. I know it well. I’ve tracted every street here haha so its hard to find areas that I haven’t tracted already. I love the members of this ward and the people here, and I will miss them when I'm transferred. It's funny how that happens in just 5 short months. During my studies I actually came across a scripture mastery verse which just pops out to me. It’s Mosiah 2:17 -

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

The best way to serve God is by serving others. We can pray, we can be as obedient as we want, but if we don’t love our neighbors and others enough to serve them then we don’t love or serve God. It is through service that we show our love for Him. And it is through service that we increase our love for others. 

His 2 great commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor. So this week just go out and serve, just once. Then reflect on that experience and you’ll start to realize that hey I feel the love of God. I’m gonna share it with everyone through service!! I promise you will feel those blessings and you will have a desire to serve just a little bit more!

Love you all and I hope everything goes well with the fam!

Ofa Lahi Atu

Elder Heimuli