Beware of Geese

Yesterday, Tim received the Aaronic priesthood. 

No words. Just happy.

Soooooo happy.

This week is zone conference and guess who were asked to sing as the (very) special musical number?

If you consider the sound of crying whales the equivalent to singing... then by all means, make a trip over to Indy this upcoming Wednesday!

Good thing the power of prayer is a real thing (looking at you, Mom) because we're definitely gonna need it. 

So geese in Indiana are what deer are in Wyoming I've come to find out. 

they. are. EVERY.WHERE. 

And they're mean. And they hiss. And they chase you.

I honestly don't know what I hate more these days, dogs or geese.

Just to kinda illustrate how horrid these creatures are, we got a call from our recent convert, Lori, and the convo went a little like this:

Me: Hey Lori! How are ya?

Her: A goose tripped me.

Me: uhhhhh I'm sorry, what now?

Her: A flock of geese swarmed and tripped me on my walk home from work today.

Me: Oh dang! That doesn't sound good. Are you okay?

Her: I'm fine! I just had to go to the hospital because my nose, head, and knees are bleeding and I broke 2 ribs.

Me: .....WHAT THE HECK LORI!! Did you make sure to kick it in the neck?!??? We're coming over right now. Do you need anything?

Her: Yeah. I'm really thirsty. Bring me some Mountain Dew. Diet.

Seriously. Beware of the geese.

As the Hoosiers say, y'all have a blessed day!

Sincerely, Sister Soloa'i

Occasionally, Sister Alexander and I like to take real creepy, mega awkward selfies.

Meet Kailey. She's basically my best friend out here.

Our washing machine is broken and only works if you sit on it soooooo this is where you'll typically find one of us.

This. Was. The. Best. Week. Ever.

Why?

Okay, I'll tell you. 

T I M  G O T  B A P T I Z E D ! ! 

T I M  R E C E I V E D  T H E  H O L Y  G H O S T ! !

Have I mentioned how much we adore Tim? 

Have I mentioned how much I love being a missionary? 

Have I mentioned how wonderful it is to witness miracles EVERDAY?? 

I had the opportunity to speak at his baptism and talk about how important and essential the covenants he was making with Heavenly Father were. 

I shared my faaaaavorite story in The Book of Mormon which is when the Anti-Nephi-Lehis bury their weapons of war and completely dedicate themselves to Christ and truly take upon themselves His name. 

It was INCREDIBLE to watch Tim do as the Anti-Nephi-Lehis did, in a sense, and bury his own weapons of war and have the blessing of receiving a "newness of life" (Romans 6.4).

I love what Elder Bednar said this last General Conference: "Baptism is a point of departure in our mortal spiritual journey; it is not a destination."

I think people often get confused when it comes to baptism... We don't stop there! It's just the beginning step! 

I'm just sooooooo blessed to be a participator in Tim's journey. 

Sincerely, Sister Soloa'i

Can I get a "Yay"?

Who doesn't love a good comp bathroom selfie?

SHABBAT SHALOM

Better believe I went to a Jewish church this week. 

Remember our past investigators who were all blind and broke up with us?

Well, turns out we did stay friends. 

One of them, Jordan, is studying to be a Rabbi and he invited us to come to church with him and we said, "We'll come to your church if you come to ours." And we did just that!

The Jewish faith is pretty beautiful. I haven't the faintest idea what was going on the majority of the time because everything was in Hebrew, but everyone was SO friendly and everything they did teach (that I understood) was about serving others and finding joy in life. 

There truly is goodness in every church. 

I was really grateful for the experience. Not only because I got to learn more about others and the way they live, but because it really strengthened my testimony in Jesus Christ. 

He is God's Beloved Son, He is truly, perfectly and wonderfully our Savior. 

HE LIVES. 

How amazing is that?? He lives for me and for you and we can live forever, with Him, too!

Our investigator, Tim, gets baptized this week! 

WE. ADORE. TIM.

The coolest thing happened to him this week: He has been mentioning lately how he doesn't know if he's felt the Spirit before. At least, in a way that he wants to. 

Sister Alexander and I decided to fast for him yesterday that he would be able to receive that confirmation through the Holy Ghost, especially before his baptism.

The power of fasting is real, you guys, okay?

Straight real.

Well, yesterday we went and visited him and one of the first things he says to us is, "I felt the Spirit today."

*excited noises by us*

He went on to try and explain how it felt and the coolest thing was that he couldn't find the right words to say. All he kept saying was, "I just felt so awesome. It was so awesome. This peace and warmth just came over me during church today. It was awesome. So awesome." 

I love that. I love it when all we can do is just FEEL the truthfulness of the gospel. 

Personally, I find that when I know something, I can always be talked out of it or when I just go by logic, I don't have any real desire to act on that knowledge. But when I FEEL something, I can't deny those feelings. 

How many times have you ever felt soooo good that you just HAD to tell someone how happy you were? You know the feeling of just not being able to stand still? That's how I feel all the time as a missionary. THE BEST feeling ever. 

I believe that it's not until we FEEL the truthfulness of the gospel and have that desire to act on it that we truly start to become converted. 

As Tim would say, the "awesome" thing about getting to that point is all we have to do is get on our knees and ask.

My very first lesson, my very first investigator, my very first baptism, my very first Hoosier friend, Lori, got to go into the temple this week!!! 

Not only did she get to go inside, but she got to be baptized for her Mom. 

How awesome, right??! 

This work isn't just for us, it's for families! 

EEEEEEETEEERNAAAAL FAMILIES. 

People, the church is true. 

Sincerely, Sister Soloa'i 

TEMPLE

Not much to say for this week, BUT we were able to attend the temple on Friday night! 

It's insane the amount of peace that comes from going to the house of the Lord.

And I truly believe that the temple is where the Earth and Heaven meet.

If you haven't gone to the temple this month, I challenge you to go! 

Go touch Heeeeaaavveeennn!

Sincerely, Sister Soloa'i

B E D B U G S : Can't Live With 'Em, Can't Live (in Indy) Without (getting) Them

^Gross. Gross gross gross. Ick ick nasty ew.

So there we are Friday night, planning, eating Mom's yummy cookies she sent (thanks Mom!), enjoying the end of the day...

But no.

"What is that??" -Me

"IT'S A BEDBUG!!!" - Sister Alexander

*freak out*

We stayed up cleaning EVERY. SINGLE. INCH. of our apartment for fooooooorever. 

We sprayed alcohol everyflippingwhere, we washed every little piece of cloth, and we vacuumed like madwomen. 

Aaaaaaand we're officially bedbug freeeeeeeeeeee! 

But. When you're a missionary and you get bedbugs, you also get exiled. Other missionaries are afraid of you (and they honestly should be). 

Rest in peace our only discovered bedbug, Ramone. 

This week we had the super fun opportunity to stand outside the gates of the play "The Book of Mormon" and hand out books of mormon!! 

It. Was. So. Fun.

If you haven't seen the play...

Simply don't.

The book is MUCH better.

It was so cool to stand outside, with other awesome missionaries, and testify of what we know to be true and what we know brings complete, everlasting happiness. 

It reminded us of Lehi's dream with the great and spacious building and the people mocking those that were partaking of the Tree of Life. Haha!

The church IS true and the book is blue!

EXCITING NEWS:

We've been teaching this stellar guy, Tim, for quite some time now aaaaaaannddd

HE'S GETTING BAPTIIIIIIZED May 7th!!! 

Tim is blind.

Are you shocked?

We love him and it's been such a blessing to see him grow, learn, and see how the gospel has blessed his life soooo much.

We had the simplest, but most amazing experience right before we asked him to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized: We were just sitting in silence at the end of a lesson and we felt promoted to just say, "You know it's true, don't you?" And all he said was "Yes." 

Spirit was SO strong! So amazing! 

Have I mentioned how much I love to be a missionary?

Sincerely, Sister Soloa'i

This is S and she was teaching better than we were in our lesson, so we figured we would just hand over our name tags.

Cute, bright, painted walls are EVERYWHERE. They make me so happy.

The sun fiiiiiiiiinally came out today... so naturally, we planted a garden.

Me when people cancel our lessons.

I LOVE INDY

"I'm not wearing pants. Should I put on pants?"

So. Preeeetty sure our apartment is broken because every. single. night. the fire alarm goes off for like a minute and then stops.

Like. What the heck.

I lay cowering in my bed every night and pray I'm not about to die.

Also, I have the world's hardest sleeper as a companion and so I don't even have a friend to freak out with at 3:00am.

But... haven't died yet so all is well!

This week, our blind investigators dropped us.

It was really sad because we had really grown to love those people and now they're not even in our lives anymore.

I felt like they were breaking up with us, honestly. They started going on about how they didn't want to "lead us on" or make us feel like our little relationship was going in a direction they didn't want to go (baptism). And one of them even started tearing up and asked if we could still be friends.

Ha. What is even going on.

To top off the whole breakup, we went and listened to sad sounding hymns (is that even a thing?) and ate ice cream.

It seems like Indy doesn't know how to dress themselves.

One day, it seemed like every door we knocked on had a naked man on the other side. One dude, wet, and hiding behind the door, opened up and just said, "Hey, I'm in the shower."

K. Cool. Bye.

Another guy answered the door a crack and said, "I'm not wearing pants. Should I put on pants?"

Yes please. We actually ended up teaching him though so that was awesome.

But still.

Indiana, I love ya. But please put on some clothes.

The highlight of this week was when we tracted into this elderly lady, Elenor. We knocked and she opens her door wiiiiide open and goes "Well hello! Come on in!"

She. Was. So. Nice.

We sat down with her and we had probably one of the best lessons I've ever had on my mission thus far. We taught the restoration and the whole time she just sat there and cried and said how beautiful it was. She's really old and is taking care of her sick husband so she can't come to church, but it was just an amazing experience.

I LOVE Elenor.

Meeting people like her and loving them soooo much just within such a short time, is probably my FAVORITE thing about being a missionary.

I love this gospel. I love the love that's in this gospel.

Sincerely, Sister Soloa'i

Mushy, Spiritual, True Things

This past week I feel like the Lord really made it clear what my weaknesses are aaaaaand it basically blows. BUT also rocks because I've never felt so humble in my life.

The cool thing about the Lord though is He wants us to be happy and He always answers our prayers! 

One night this week, I was praying and asking Heavenly Father to pleeaaassee let me feel somewhat useful and receive some kind of confirmation that I could do this whole missionary thing. 

And the next day was probably THE BEST day I've had on my mission. 

Every lesson went so well and I was able to testify of Christ completely with the Spirit. And also just really TALK and LISTEN to people and help them with their needs and greater solidify my own conversion. SUCH a good, good day.

The Lord hears us, people! He knows us and He's waiting for us. 

AND He love us soooooooooo (SO) so so so much it's ridiculous. 

My favorite thing about my mission? Being able to see miracles DAILY in people's lives. I've been out in the field for like... what? A month? But I hold that month so dear and have experienced and learned so much from it, that I would never ever ever ever trade it for anything in the whole, wide wooooorrrld.

Simply put, the gospel of Jesus Christ IS restored and it IS this church and it absolutely, undoubtedly, completely brings everlasting, eternal joy. 

HOW COOL IS THAT?!??  

Sincerely, Sister Soloa'i