God is Good!

7/27/15

Iaorana!

I hope you are all doing well and loving life! Things continue to go amazingly here at Papeari and we truly do love life! The weeks go by so fast, its truly incredible! Last week was so good and full of lots of amazing things! The older I get on this mission, the more I realize that things are not about me. It has been amazing for us to experience that as long as we are holding our end of the deal with obedience, diligence, and faith . . . that God really will pull through with His part as well! Everyone is waiting for this gospel and they are all being prepared whether they know it or not! It is amazing to hear the individual stories and try to match the gospel principle that they need and apply it with the spirit to help their needs and bring them unto Christ. We are all lost in our own way. We are all still sitting in the fire with our master constantly holding and watching us. We are all being refined. But the important thing is to be aware of this change, to see the hands of God in our lives, to open our hearts and let Him in. This week we saw several examples of this. We finally met Regina. We first met her through a Survey that we did with the Elders a couple weeks ago. She was a little tricky to track down but we kept trying and now are glad we did! We soon learned that she does not have a religion but does believe in God and wants to know more about Him. After the first lesson she agreed to read out of the Book of Mormon and pray about coming unto Christ through baptism. I know that she has been prepared for these messages of hope and happiness. She is missing something in her life and even though she might not realize it, she was searching. I know that if she will open her heart and realize her need of God, He will respond to her. Please pray for Regina! We also started the discussions with two darling girls named Moeani and Mahana! I love them because they remind me of my darling little sister, Shaylee! They are both beautiful, really smart, and super receptive to the things we share. Half way through their first lesson, the older of the two, Moeani started crying and could not describe why. She was happy and we described to her that she was feeling the spirit. These two Young girls had been prepared through their experiences as well and are praying about their baptism as well! We also had the baptism of our dear friend Mihiau. Her baptism was supposed to be last week but had to be rescheduled because she fell into temptation and smoked a cigarette the morning of her baptism. She has been through a lot. She had already received the missionaries as a little girl but her mother did not accept her request to be baptized. This traumatized her a little and again she fell into a dark world of sin. She became a little cold with her opinions towards the church and now as an adult it was only after she saw her father-in-law change that she re-accepted the missionary lessons. After a bit she decided that she did want to get baptized but had a really hard time giving up smoking and was not seriously motivated to do so. Eventually she put in her efforts and fasted and found success in quitting. Through all of this, she kept a lot to herself and did not like sharing her thoughts or testimony very often. Then came the day of her baptism. Such a cool  experience! When the service was over and she shared her testimony for everyone, her first sentence was: I joined this Church because I know that its true. So simple but it pierced my heart in just the right way. She opened her heart and let God in and He helped her change. The rest of her testimony talked about how we can change through Christ and how we truly can earn eternal life! I was blown away! I think that my favorite thing in life is seeing others change and find happiness! I love this gospel and the truthfulness of it! I am a member of this Church because as Mihiau said . . . I know its true! Life is hard but with the gospel there is nothing that cannot be resolved! So if any of you are struggling with your testimonies, open up your hearts, put God to the test and ask for yourselves. I love you all! Keep trying to notice the blessings that we receive each day and always seek for opportunities to become a little more like our Savior! I love you all!! Have a great week!!!

Love, Sœur Heather Kofford

These are two of our investigators! Hanaiti and Nona! They are professional Heiva dancers! They taught us a dance this morning and let us wear their costumes that they made!

Crepes with dmp!!

Mihiaus baptism! Our sister!

I found some antlers for father Kent! We can do better than that! hahaha Just kidding, I don't even know what this was! This is Regina in the picture with her wiener dogs!

Pretty sure we all new each other before this life! Love them!