Polaulu!

Hello from cloudy California!

We had transfers on Tuesday; Sister Greener and Sister Polaulu came to Lakewood and we did the switch! Sister Nicol left to Whittier. Our first appointment was with a Tongan investigator, I didn't do it on purpose, I swear! As soon as he saw Sister Polaulu he said, " AH! You brought a Tongan, now we can really talk!" haha it was super funny. I have learned that I am what they call a, "palangi" which basically mean white person. But after talking with Soni, we went to see Dice, who is Samoan... and this was the pattern for the rest of the day! We later met with a Tongan family in our ward who knows Sister Polaulu's family from the Island, but they left before she was born. I unintentionally brought her to all the Polynesians I knew in the area! I guess God works in mysterious ways! But it was great because Sister Polaulu said it really made her feel at home!

Wednesday we had a great lesson with Mattie! Her faith is increasing so much, it is amazing to see! I love working with young people! Don't get me wrong, I love all of our investigators, there is just something so special about youth and young adults who are learning and growing in their faith in Christ! Later, we were eating dinner with the Toliseli's (the Tongan family; I think we will be eating with them a lot now haha) and we got a call from a Washington number. I answered it and someone asked when our church meetings were, so I told him. Then I asked who it was and he told me his name was Andrew Johnson and he had heard about the church from his friend at school and wanted to know more, but he was moving to Bellflower in a week. We set up a time to teach him more over the phone and it went amazingly!!! He loved the restoration, accepted a baptismal date and the next day we taught him the plan of salvation! He is reading the Book of Mormon and he says he believes it is true! We even introduced him to a member over the phone, it was great! We are going to see if we can set up a skype lesson before he gets here this weekend.

Friday morning we were getting ready for a full morning of work and... Sister Holt locked the keys in the trunk... which is almost impossible in the new Malibus, but somehow I managed. So it was a slower morning haha we had to wait for the Vehicle Coordinator, Elder Carpenter, to come by and open everything up for us! Then, it was off to work! Later we had our first 'after baptism lesson' with Alyssa! It was really great and Vaiola Toliseli was with us and Alyssa will be coming teaching with us this week! We are so excited and we hope she is too haha.

Saturday we had lessons with Edward, Dilberto, Jeremy, and Tom and Valda! It was a pretty full day. It was really great to see Jeremy again, he just got out of the hospital but he seems to be doing well. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I think it was just what he needed... although he didn't end up coming to church on Sunday... we also had a great experience at a stake activity. Our ward mission leader had invited a friend and wanted us to come and talk to him, even though he wasn't in our area. We tried to bring Dice but he got held up, but we decided to go anyways. Well Mattie ended up going with her boyfriend Ethan and the grandson of some members in our ward was there. I had seen him at church with the members a lot, but I just assumed he was a member... well he isn't! He introduced himself to us, his name is Brady, and he told us he was thinking about joining our church! He is 13 and very sweet! We can't wait to teach him!

Sunday, Mattie and Brady were at church and that was really great to see! After church we went to have a lesson with Bill, Mark and MinMin and they had made dinner! It had been Bill's birthday the day before and it hadn't gone as expected, so they were making up for it! We were able to teach the plan of salvation to MinMin as they were finishing up the food and it was really great! And then we had our real dinner appointment to go to with a less-active member haha so much for 6 months to slim. Later we went to Betty Swank's house, a member that got baptized about 2 years ago. We hadn't seen her at church for about a month and we went over and the night before she had torn a muscle in the back and had been to the emergency room that morning! We called a member of the bishopric over and he was able to give her a blessing. I really love it when I get to be present for blessings, or especially when I receive them myself! We are so blessed to have the priesthood once again established on the earth!

The Church is True!        

Love, Sister Holt