Sister Kofford in Tahiti: Miracles After the Trial of our Faith!

7/6/15

IAORANA mes amis et ma famille!! Je vous aime beaucoup!!

I hope you all had fantastisc week because my companion and I sure did! Last week was a struggle with being sick having the dengue fever and not being able to do as much as we normally would! The start of this week we still had some side effects of this virus but we decided to tough it out and go to work! We came home every night this week absolutely exhausted but we tried our best to do our best! We saw many miracles this week! Frere Tagihia was an excommunicated member that got rebaptized on Saturday! His wife has been waiting 27 years for him to find himself and come back into the church. Then we had a family night with their broken family that was supposed to be on the power of prayer. At the last minute I asked my comp if we could change the message to agency and we did. We talked about our agency and our choices and décisions and it was amazing to feel the spirit pour our message into their souls. At the end of the message, we committed everyone to choose one thing to change in their lives. A couple days later we got the news that he wanted to be baptized. He quit smoking, drinking, and drugs in one week in order to be worthy. Now his daughter in law is getting baptized on the 18th of July where before she would not even talk to us! I love seeing people change! We also have good old Frere Tapena haha! He likes to drink, party, smoke, and take drugs. His wife and two daughters were converted at the beginning of this year and he did not want anything to do with it. Finally a couple months ago we begged him into taking the missionary lessons. He only speaks Tahitian and so for each lesson we took the time to really prepare the lesson but then as soon as we would sit down and start to teach he would fight the system and we would spend the entire discussion answering his questions haha. Then last Saturday we showed up for his lesson and he was drinking. We joked with him and told him that we were going to take his alcohol and throw it away. We then taught him again about the Word of Wisom. The next time we went back to his house he told us that he accepted our commitment to be baptized the 18th of July! So he too will be baptized this day! I found a scripture this week that I really love! Its in Job 5:17. It says "Happy is the man whom God correcteth!" Each one of our investigators and ourselves as well are being corrected! We all have our weaknesses and our sins and our imperfections and something that blocks us each day from following the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ! But as soon as we humble ourselves and allow ourselves to realize that we really do need God and we need His spirit in our lives and we need the knowledge that repentance is possible through Christ, God starts to correct us. He keeps us in the fire until we are about to burn. He watches us every single step of the day. And then when He can start to see the change, He starts to see His image in us . . . we are able to feel His love and we re happy! So as you go throughout this week, humble yourselves before God, let Him correct you, because He can change your heart! And you can become a piece of fine silver! I love our Heavenly Father! I love His son! I love this Gospel! And I am happy! Thank you for everything!! I love and miss you all!!! Have a fantastic week!

Love, Sœur Kofford