Hi family!!

So lots of changes have occurred since I last wrote. 1. I have a new
companion, Sister Vimahi, and I love her! She's from Cali. 2. We have
a new area! The elders left in Tongamama'o right next to us so
President asked us to cover their area as well as ours. We practically
cover half of the island now. It was a little rough at first trying to
cover that much area on foot, but we are getting the hang of it,
slowly. It's been fun getting closer with another ward on top of ours!
3. We started a new program in our ward which has so far been so on
point!! Lately, we've started seeing a lack of progression in our ward
and so we started a new program that was inspired by one of the
sisters in our district here. Every morning and night a member family
feeds us and this is a huge thing here because they see it as a
blessing for us to eat their food. But since we care more about
teaching people then eating food, we started a program to help the
members hopefully change their focus. Every evening feeding there has
to be someone there for us to teach, whether a less-active or a
non-member, and if there isn't then we bless the food and at the same
time open our fast and let the members eat the food and we teach them.
This way, every night there is a teaching. Every day this week we have
had someone for us to teach before we eat!

This week we were supposed to fly to Tonga to go to MLC, but the plane
couldn't land because of wind the first time so we were stuck here. We
tried again on Thursday to have a mini MLC for the missionaries in
'Eua and Vava'u and ended up spending the entire day at the airport
waiting for our flight that kept getting delayed. And then finally it
was just cancelled altogether. It was a bit of a struggle to have a
good attitude about it. Especially when the storm hit which made the
work a little hard. I honestly don't know how this island isn't
completely flooded already! Looking back on it though, we've been able
to see so many BLESSINGS that have come out of it and how the Lord has
intervened for a wiser purpose. We realized that there was probably a
reason we needed to stay behind and it was because we were able to
teach the daughter of our bishop (who was feeding us that night)
and her husband, Tupou and Liana. She grew up in the church and served
a mission, but married her husband, a non-member. When we taught them
the message of the restoration, he was pretty open to it and when we
shared the account of the 1st vision, she started crying. I'm sure it
brought her back many memories and reminded her of the testimony she
had shared so many times with others. With what she shared with us we
could tell how much she regretted falling away and marrying outside
the church and how much she wants to come back and be sealed in the
temple. She was able to share with us and her husband how she received
a testimony of the Book of Mormon growing up. It was so BEAUTIFUL! The
morning after the lesson, they flew back to their home in Tonga they
go back and forth from. If we had gone to Tonga, we would probably
have been stuck in Tonga because of the storm and wouldn't have taught
them that night. I'm so excited, between us and the missionaries in
their area, to continue to teach them and help them be
converted/reconverted to the gospel!

This week I've started reading more diligently "Jesus the Christ" and
for any of you that haven't started it or finished it, READ IT. It's
so good. I regret that I only started reading it at this point in my
mission. The words are a bit big for me, but I have learned sooo much.

Another blessing of the week is that the HUGE rat that's been
pestering us is finally out of the MQ for good! After a little crazy
night where we woke up in the middle of the night because it was in my
BED we became a bit more driven to get it out. But now, all is well.
Rat is out. There are again blue skies here.

Love you all!!
Sister Petalisi

Friends and Family,

So a few changes happened this week! Sister Reid left Eua to work in Tonga and I got a new companion, Sister Vimahi. I love her! She's a Tongan sister from California and pretty much fluent in the language because she kind of grew up speaking it so that's a huge plus! I'm hoping to improve a lot in the language this transfer. She's almost done too. Two of the elders left 'Eua and they are getting no replacements so President is having us work to their area as well as ours. Our area is HUGE now and we spend most of our time walking. 

Don't have much time to write, so this is all I will be sending home this week, but just want to let you know that I'm doing okay! We were supposed to fly to Tonga today for our MLC meeting, but the plane wasn't able to land to come get us so we are just staying here which is a little disappointing. Especially since it may be President and Sister Tupou's last MLC before they finish. We get a new one next month President Tu'ione I think is his name. I am excited to see what might change in the mission with the new President. 

Love you all!  The work is really hard out here but I love it. I'm trying! Have a good week!

Sister Petalisi

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. 

Our collection of shoes

The typical meal for the two of us.

My companion is so wonderful she even made me a cake<3 Male e ma'u e M&Ms.  Happy 20th. 

Eva matanga ki ai

Lakufa'anga VAHE'EUA

Hello!                                                         May 14th.  
So this week had it's ups and downs. First off, mata kovi hit 'Eua,
some new virus or sickness. It actually started making us laugh when
almost every house we went to Saturday, someone would come out a
little shy, with one hand kind of covering their eye and their eyes
are bloodshot or swollen and really watery. So sad. Half the ward wore
sunglasses to church. I'm not sure how Sister Reid and I haven't
gotten it yet, but that's a blessing.

Lots of our investigators dropped us this week for a variety of
reasons and I'm still trying to recover from a little bit of a broken
heart. One family was because of peer pressure their getting from
their family and friends, but they invited us over Friday, for us
to sit down and really talk about it. I'm not really sure what they
have in mind, but we will prepare lots for that! Another was a brother
and sister that were SO GOLDEN and their parents seemed to love us and
not mind that we came and shared with their children, but then on
Friday when we went, our investigator told us that his dad wasn't loto
(or wanting it) to us sharing our message with them anymore. That was
really hard. But we will try to work towards the dad and get on his
good side somehow.

Good news is that Seini is progressing and doing so well!! She
couldn't make it to church Sunday because her and her little baby
got hit with mata kovi the day before. But she is going to Tonga this
week and coming back with her husband who is a member, but
less-active. We're so excited because now he will be here for her
baptism and we can start working with him too so they can be sealed in
the temple. W

Well I wish I could go on, but time is cutting me short. I love this
work! I feel so blessed to have these experiences and bring people
their eternity. God is so wonderful and amazing. I know he lives and
that he loves each of us. Have a wonderful week <3

xoxo,
Sister Petalisi

Island hopping for training meetings last week.

 Hi! 

So this week was wonderful and terrible at the same time. But then again I could probably say that about lots of days of my mission so I always just choose to say it was wonderful. We did lots of "knocking" and meeting new people/potential investigators ki ai! One of the days the member who was supposed to feed us that morning maybe forgot or something so we walked to our bishops house and asked for food. It was probably the worst day we could have done something like that because their house was a crazy house everyone running around, changing the house and furniture, cleaning, cooking TONS of food, preparing for the funeral of the Bishop's mom who wasn't actually dead yet. I guess Tongans just know exactly when to start preparing for a funeral because she passed away on Saturday. Every night they have a "fai lotu" at the house where everyone goes and sings and prays. We went last night and I love singing with Tongans but my voice was gone after because as a little palangi I'm pretty much singing/screaming at the top of my lungs for an hour. The actual funeral and burial will be on Thursday, which is perfect timing because we'll get back from Tonga on Thursday morning.

A young couple in the ward invited us over to teach her mom who is Catholic at their family night. It was a fun night and good lesson but when we ended with "Finasi'aki" (pretty much where you go around the room and everyone takes turns saying what's on their mind being open and honest with each other, problems they have with each other or whatever it is they want to express, I guess you could say it's just a big family inventory) and she let us know she was grateful we came but would be staying in the Catholic church because that's what she was raised in. It was very sad for Mele, her daughter, because I know how much it has taken for her to get the nerve to invite missionaries to teach her mom. She has said since the time I moved here that we are just going to take it really slowly with her mom because she's a hard one. But I know that NO EFFORT IS WASTED. Even though I'm sure it was very hard for Mele, she has been such a sport about it and I'm sure part of it is just feeling the responsibility come off her shoulders because now she has done her part. Maybe one day her mom will have a change of heart.

I love this work and I know it is the Lord's work. I see His hand in it every day and I know he will ALWAYS lead us as long as we strive to have His spirit with us each day. The Lord is amazing. He is perfect and he loves us perfectly. I know that the atonement of Christ has the power to heal all imperfections, weaknesses, insecurities, doubts, and troubles that enter our lives. We can know this if we trust him. Love you all. Have a beautiful week <3

 Sister Petalisi

Hi Family! 

Wow lots happened this week so I'm not going to be able to talk about most of it but I will try to do my best giving a little snippet. 

We started teaching a young mom, Seini, who is very open to our message. Her parents are the Hou'eiki here and started the Westlyan church here so she attends that church but is pretty open to all faiths and enjoys listening. We found her visiting an older couple that was an older investigater I had yet to teach or talk with really. We got there and they were very nice but before we could share anything they got up and announced they needed to go to the store down the street and we could teach their friend that was just visiting them and lived down the street (Sela). Hola ki ai! After we explained the Book of Mormon and invited her to read it she said something like "Well yeah I'll just read the book and see if it's true" very casually. She always tells us about all the people that talk bad about the church to her (which is usually why people drop us or start running away). But she does not care which is a wonderful thing. She talks about all the bad/crazy things they say and then asked us "Did you know that people hate your church?" Haha yeah kind of a world-wide thing. We committed her to baptism on Saturday after teaching her the Plan of Salvation. We asked her what she can do that she hasn't already done to prepare to live in the Celestial Kingdom and she said something like "Well I should probably just do those 5 things that you were talking about." She's so on point! 

These past few days have been busy with Stake Conference. There was a Saturday night session for the adults, Sunday morning, and a fireside last night and they were all wonderful! 5 of our investigators came to the Sunday morning conference and 2 of them were new investigaters invited by our members. We taught one of those a little bit ago- a mexican from california. The only terrible thing about it was that their was a "kai pola" (feast) after each of these three meetings for the leaders and special guests that had been invited and they made us come to each of them. I don't think I've ever been as bloated as I was that day, but fortunately I'm still alive. 

Well, I wish I could go on but due to the time, mahalo ko ia pe.

Ofa lahi atu,

Sister Petalisi

Pualani at Stake Conference

Family and Friends,

This past week we've really started to see some progress in the area
and feels like the wheels are starting to spin a little faster as
planned lessons are starting to fill up our days and members are
lining up to have us come teach at their house and have family night
with them. I love this ward they are a dream.

Right now we are continuing to work with Timote who is trying to be
sealed in the temple this year with his girlfriend. Since the time we
first started working with him he has progressed so much--stopped
smoking completely, prays morning and night, and reads the Book of
Mormon almost every day. He is glowing! It is awesome to see the light
that has grown brighter in his eyes as he's grown closer to Heavenly
Father and the Savior. His initial response to the invitation to read
the Book of Mormon was, "Um I don't read." He gradually started to
read more and more every day and would kind of hide in the corner of
his room so that his family, who aren't members, wouldn't see him and
make fun of him. He recently told us he gets so excited about the
stories that he stands up and reads out loud to himself, walking
around his room.

We had a neat experience with one of the part-member families we are
working with. After watching General Conference and the Women's
Conference, I asked myself what more can I do to "make a difference"
by serving locally. Having thought about it and prayed about it for a
couple days, the mother of this part-member family approached us and
asked if we could help her kids with their English because apparently
were all failing in their English tests at school. We were able to
help them for an hour this week with their English and plan on
continuing to do so every week. The parents love it and I hope that it
may open the dad's heart, who is a non-member, to listen to our
message. You'd think that me being a missionary there are so many
opportunities to serve. And of course there are, just not in the way
that you'd expect. Like we recently heard in Conference, we can simply
serve others through our love, example and the way we treat others.
And that's pretty much the extent of our service here because NO ONE
lets you serve them or do anything to help them. This gets a bit
frustrating at times. But we felt very happy in our realizing that
this is one way we can serve the people here.

Ofa lahi atu kia moutolu xoxo
Sister Petalisi