Sister Kelsey Betteridge

Hello!

We had another wonderful week here in 'Eua. I've seen in many instances the hand of the Lord in our work. We have started teaching Seini's older brother and wife who have one kid and belong to the Wesleyan church. He is very religious, has done lots of studying the Bible and other religions so he's read lots of the Book of Mormon and looked into our church and is preparing to become a missionary in the Wesleyan church. He asks quite a few intimidating questions. Probably trying to decide if we're worth listening to or not. Like specific questions about the bible, or "Do you feel "fe'unga" (enough, worthy) to preach the gospel?" Or "Wait, how old are you?" Despite his smarts and intimidating questions, we did our best to control the direction of the lesson and be led by the spirit. By the end of the lesson, he admitted that he knew the Book of Mormon was true and Joseph Smith a true prophet, he just can't leave his responsibility in his church because he has so much going for him! We testified to him that when God teaches us through the spirit, He expects us to listen and act on that prompting. I was SO shocked after the lesson because I knew that it could have only been God and the Holy Ghost that could stump him like that. He would probably be even more 'ohovale if he only knew how much we really knew about religion and the Bible. Not much compared to people like him who study it for their career. Only God could perform that kind of miracle, stumping the wise and learned, through 2 palangi girls with braids like us. He is AMAAZINNG. He and his family will make such strong members and missionaries!!

Other than that and the other people I have already talked about, we are teaching a few people who were baptized before but weren't taught the lessons. I can't help but think, if only this had been done right the first time. But God has taught me that even though none of us are perfect, he can still accomplish His works through us. It has been SO much fun working with one of the girls, Una, who we had started teaching a while ago and then got baptized in Tonga. We just started teaching her again and were able to talk about her experience. Through the whole thing, she would ask questions , trying to make sense of it all. When we gave her a Book of Mormon and shared about how she can know if it's true through the power of the Holy Ghost, as I said that, her eyes lit up and she asked "HOW??" She was so invested. After talking about the feelings of the Holy Ghost, she shared how she felt during her baptism and must have made a connection in her brain that the warm feelings she had after being baptized was the Holy Ghost she had felt. We were all crying. She's been through a lot...gangs, drinking, smoking. I'm so grateful that God led us to her so that we can help her become converted to the church with a strong testimony and changed heart. It was truly a miracle how we found her.