Week 32 HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER MOALA!!!

FRIENDS AND FAMILY, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, CHILDREN OF GOD,

ITS SISTER MOALAS 20TH BIRTHDAY TODAY!!! (If y'all wanna do me a favor and email her happy birthday to amoala@missionary.org it would be much appreciated!!) We have had a very fun weekend full of festivities! One of the cutest recent converts named Naomi threw a birthday party for Sister Moala yesterday! She is from Haiti so we had all sorts of yummy food and we had 3 different kinds of cake!! IT WAS SO GOOD! 

We also got transfer news and SISTER MOALA is staying!! We were surprised because she has already been here for 6 months but I am ecstatic! I love her so very very much and I am so excited for the transfer ahead! We have also been assigned to be the Family History missionaries for our zone, which I don't exactly know what that entails but stay tuned...I am sure we will figure it out. 

This week was a good one full of AMAZING MEMBERS!! We continue to have 2 member lessons a night and each one is better than the last! It has been so amazing to see me and Sister Moalas teaching skills improve. It has also been such a blessing to gain these sweet members trust. One of the members named Sister Udy even gave us a shoutout in her talk yesterday and I just loved it. 

We had a lesson with Ginger this week that went really well! We had a member there who was SO kind and SO amazing and Ginger committed to coming to church! We were SO excited about it, but alas, Sunday morning came and went and Ginger was no where to be found. We texted her and it turns out she didn't sleep the night before and didn't feel up for it. It made me sad, I love her a whole lot and I know how much church attendance can bless her life. Onward and Upwards though...we will get her next week! 

We had another lesson with Tom this week which was amazing! We had the senior missionary couple with us and we really just focused on faith. It was such a cool thing to see it connect in Tom's head and his desire to grow enhance. He has been reading in the Book of Mormon and we are slowly but surely helping him to gain a relationship with God. 

All of our lessons this week had members present and so far we have members planned out to come with us to all of the lessons this coming week! MEMBERS ARE SO IMPORTANT!! I have seen the blessings that come with having the members testify to those we are teaching and it is truly unbelievable. I cannot express enough how vital members are to this work. 

Something God is really trying to teach me is patience. I am loving Benicia and I have a vision for this area. I know that things can turn around and that we can find new people to teach and baptize. I have seen so many tender mercies that just help me to see that God is in this work and He is guiding us. I have never prayed more, worked harder, or listened to more promptings than I have while I have been serving here. Me and Sister Moala are truly giving it our all and I know that God is going to bless us. The trick is waiting... I was reading about patience in Preach My Gospel this week and something really stuck out to me, it reads:
"Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious. It is the ability to do God's will and accept His timing." 
I love that a whole lot. We have been struggling to find people to teach and have people come to church. It has been frustrating but I know that we are doing our very best to do Gods will, so this week I have been working on accepting His timing. 

Being a missionary is the best experience I have ever had and I am just full of gratitude for each and every day. It is hard, so so so so so hard. There are so many ups and downs and so much frustration. We get rejected on the daily and often there seems to be no hope. But there is ALWAYS a light at the end of the tunnel. I know that God has a plan for this area and I am just trying to focus on what I can do to align my plans with His. 

Grateful for another transfer, grateful for my companion, grateful for all of you, 
Mucho Love,
Sister Tams 

Other/Funny stuff: 
-I made white chicken chili and German Pancakes this week and Sister Moala really thinks I am quite the chef. 
-We helped chop down some branches for a service project for a less active family this week and I loved it. Me and Sister Moalas backs are both wrecked but it was TOTALLY worth it. 
-My momma is extra and sent Sister Moala birthday presents. She was SO excited. I honestly thought she was gonna kill me for making her wait until today to open them! 
-God is good everyday. 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 72 Trick-or-treat, swollen feet, 155 pieces of candy to eat

Image
  FRIENDS AND FAMILY, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, CHILDREN OF GOD,  Wow wow wow HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! I hope you all had the best and most festive Holiday, ours was definitely eventful.  We continue to teach our good friend Ray, we talked about the Restoration this week and he said that so far everything that he has heard lines up with his beliefs and the bible. He is superrrrr cool.  We got to see and talk to lots of amazing people this week which as always I loved!!! I don't have a ton of details for you, but just know that I have felt extremely grateful and humbled for the opportunity to have been able to serve in this area around such amazing people. A quote I loved from my studies said:  "Weakness and humility lead to hopefulness, not helplessness." -Scott Swofford I LOVE THIS!! As y'all know I have been studying a lot about humility and I know that as we turn things over to the Lord and recognize our own shortcomings He makes things into so much more than...
Read more

Week 68 Baptism, Conference and Transfers

Image
  FRIENDS AND FAMILY, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, CHILDREN OF GOD, EVERYTHING happened this week. ALL of it. Here is a highlight reel: -BOB GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!!!! It was an amazing poolside service and lots of great people came to support him. He was glowing and said he felt goosebumps the whole time. I love him so so much and am so so so happy that I got to be apart of it all.  -SISTER BUNKER IS LEAVING. Transfers are today and we found out we will be losing her to Novato. She is a rockstar and will be an STL her ENTIRE MISSION!!! I still cannot believe our dreams came true and that we got to be companions, I read a note that I wrote to her right after the MTC and I addressed it to my future companion. God is good and knew that I needed a comp like her, forever grateful.  -We are getting a cutie named Sis Hancock, she came in with Sister Soultz so I will be ending my last transfer with 2 newish missionaries!!! It should be lots of fun.  -LAST BUT CERTAINTLY NOT LEAST ...
Read more

Week 67 #itstheendoftheworld #highwatermark #whydideveryonestopusinghashtags

Image
Friends and family, brothers and sisters, children of God,  We are on fire again, literally and figuratively! Last night we got a call that the Hermanas would be coming to stay the night because they were evacuated!! It has been a fun little slumber party and honestly none of us know how long it will last. The ash is worse than it ever has been before, the floor is coated with it. It is the end of the world, but that's okay because the work moves forward!! My zone has been continuing to kill it and we OFFICIALLY hit our high water mark, with 3 baptisms to go!! These Elders and Sisters are incredible and they have been working SO hard! I am SO glad I got to be apart of it all.  Bob is doing really really good and is making his way back to California! Which is THE BEST because his baptism will be on Sunday!!! We are ALL so excited!! SO PLS PRAY THAT THE FIRES DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING.  I have been teaching Sis Soultz the story of the Book of Mormon, because as a recent convert...
Read more