Sister Kofford in Tahiti: He Does Everything With Wisdom!

1/18/16

Iaorana tout le monde!

I hope you had another good week! Life is a good thing, and it is amazing how much can happen and how much can change in a week! We had a good week! It is definitely the sick season again here in Tahiti. In our house, one sister from each companionship got sick this week. This took a little toll on the work and called for some time at the house. But, now we have seemed to regain our health and are all motivated to get out and give it everything this week! Since I have been here in Mahina, we have been visiting an inactive member, Marie Ange. She is a super nice lady, but because of some past circumstances, her husband has turned against the church and will not let her come to church. She started smoking again and their family's lives fell apart little by little over the years. Even with the time and effort we put into this family each week, we did not see much progress, but had the feeling we needed to continue. Yesterday, as we were out and about making sure everyone was still coming to church, we decided to drive down to their house just to see if by chance Marie Ange wanted to come with her daughter in law, Lysiane, who is not yet a member. As we approached their house, we noticed their truck was out and running on the side of the road. Then, we saw Marie Ange and Lysiane! They looked gorgeous in their dresses and were already on their way to church! This was such a tender mercy, and I know God has been working on them and gave them the courage and the force to come to church yesterday! I also know that they will be greatly blessed thanks to this sacrifice and obedience! Such a miracle! We also had our first lesson with Tuane this week! She is a friend of our new converts, Marwinda and Tane. Her schedule is a little crazy, so its taken some time to actually have her first lesson happen. Since the day I met her, I had been praying in my heart that we would be able to fix her baptism and that she could prepare herself for the baptism invitation. When we arrived at her lesson, she was ready and was glowing! Just as I had imagined, she accepted the invitation to be baptized. She shared with us some experiences in her life that led up to this decision. She truly has been being prepared, and it is her moment to change! We will be working on helping her stop smoking, so that would be awesome if you could all keep her in your prayers! Lots of little miracles this week! These little instances make it all worth it! To see others change through the truthfulness of this Gospel! Yet again, I have realized that God is in control! This is his work, not ours, and he is always willing to give us a miracle if we will change ourselves first through humility, try our very best to do his will, and follow the spirit, and ask for his help!

A scripture I loved this week was Jacob 4:10! We cannot question our Lord, but let him council us; he governs his works with wisdom, justice, and a great mercy! He knows everything from the beginning! He allows us to go through trials and hard times, to come to know him even more and to more rely on him! I also love something I learned in Relief Society yesterday. "With trials in our life, we will never lose . . . either we will make the right decision and win in the situation, or we will make the not so right decision that turns out to be the right decision in the end, because we learn and progress from the mistake!" But for all of this to happen, we have to get to know our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. We need to know these two people better than we know ourselves. If we know them and have this special relationship with them, our whole life will be centered on them, and we will always be doing what God needs us to be doing, either winning the situation or learning from it! So let us remember them, get to know them and to trust them! They do their work with wisdom, justice, and mercy! They will make more out of us than we ever could! I love our Heavenly Father, and I love our Savior, the Christ! This church is so true! I love you all and hope you are enjoying your Christ-centered lives! Have a great week! Thanks for everything!!

Love, Soeur Kofford