Speaking Samoan this week!

November 12, 2013 - from Sister Gillett

Hey family!!!

This week we were tracting a street in the middle of the day and no one was home/no one was answering their door. We knocked the whole culdesac and when we came back to our car I noticed a guy come out of his house and then go back in. We had previously knocked on the door but no one answered.  I suggested to Sister Jensen that we should go and try that house again. She was a little resistant but we decided to do it anyways. A young man named M answered the door and he was pretty interested in learning more. He told us that he normally isn't home at that time but to day his class was canceled. Definitely not a coincidence!!!! We were able to read the Book of Mormon with him and he accepted a copy and said he would read it. We will be going back later this week to see how things are going! :)

We had a little meeting with Sister B all about the mission president conferences she and president had been attending. In this training she said that Elder Ballard told them that "1/3 of the world is ready to hear the gospel. When you find with faith you will find that 1/3. When you find with out faith you find the other 2/3." :) So this week Sister J and I have been trying really hard to increase our faith to find. Elder Ballard has also said that you can find 10 new people a day!! So if an Apostle of the Lord says we can do it, we can do it!! Our goal every day is to find 10 new investigators. It is hard, and we haven't achieved it yet, but with God all things are possible. Setting this goal has really been an act of faith for me. But there is no better way to strengthen my faith than to act!!

This weekend there has been a lot of focus on Veteran's day. The ward I serve in put on a Veteran's Day program on Saturday and it was really neat to hear some of their stories and have people of different faiths come to our church for the program. It was an awesome finding activity!! I am so grateful for all the men and women who are brave enough to leave their families for a time and go to war to protect our country. It takes a lot of courage to put your life on the line to protect something that you love. I am so grateful for the freedoms that we enjoy because of the men and women who have fought to let us have these rights. I am also grateful for our ultimate hero, Jesus Christ who died for us. because he died for us we can enjoy freedoms from guilt, pain, mistakes, sins, regrets, and so many other things. I know that the atonement is real and it can bless us so much as we are willing and humble to come unto Christ and change to become more like him. As we feel of this redemptive power we will have experiences like Nephi when he says "awake my soul, no longer droop in sin... Rejoice o my heart... O Lord, I will praise thy name forever;yea my soul will rejoice in thee, my God and the rock of my salvation."

We have been spending some time working on our family history and making our pedigree charts that we can show to others to encourage them to do their family history work. A lot of people here ask me where my last name comes from...Where does it come from?? England? I was able to trace it back to England when it use to be spelt Gilot. Interesting!! There are also a few stories of our ancestors on familysearch.org. I looked at stories from Emer Harris and the biographys he has are pretty cool! You have probably told me this before but I didnt realize his name is in D&C 75 when he received his mission call. I thought that was pretty cool!!

Today I am on exchanges with Sister T. She is from Hawaii and she is in the Samoan program here. She taught me a little bit of Samoan this morning during language study and it was so much fun!! Ou te iloa e moni lenei talalelei. Ou te iloa e moni le Tusi a Mamona. Ou te iloa o losefa samita o se perofeta moni a le atua. I le suafa o Iesu Keriso, Amene. :) That means that I know that the gospel is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Hopefully she wont make me bear my testimony in Samoan today during a lesson, but it would be way funny if she did!! She also taught me how to pray in Samoan :) Lo matou Tama o i le lagi, Matou te faafetai mo lenei aso. Matou te faafetai mo le avanoa e feiloa'i ma lenei. Matou te ole atu mo lou alofa. Matou te ole atu mo saogalemu. Matou te ole atu mo faamanuia lenei aiga. Matou te alolofa ia te oe. i le suafa o Iesu Keriso Amene. It has been a fun morning and i am so excited to see what is in store for us today as we go out to teach lessons in Samoan :)

Funny story for you. We received a headquater referral and the name said A B. So we went to the address and we asked if A was home. The guy looked really confused and said this is the A residence... I guess on headquarter referrals they put the last name first so we really should have been asking if B was home! haha we had a good laugh about it!!

sorry this is so scattered. I love you guys so much and I hope that you have a wonderful week!!

Love, Sister Gillett