Sherlock Holmes and the Missionary's Purpose

Iaorana tatou!

I have no time left, but yet another good week in the field. He- is ready for his baptism this Saturday. Turns out his mysterious problem was just rowing competitions that would prevent him from coming to church on Sundays, such as for his confirmation. Which would leave him with only half a baptism, because baptism is not finished without the confirmation and gift of the Holy Ghost. But he's got it figured out now so that he will only row during the week. Yay for the Sabbath Day!

We visited Hi- again this week and taught him the Restoration. It was funny because he was trying so hard to listen instead of just talk - he recognizes that we have something important to share - but we had to be careful what we said because if we said the wrong word he would go off on a long tangent about pride or who is really responsible for Christ's death and things like that. And then he would apologize and we would continue with the lesson as planned. As we spoke he would close his eyes to better think through what we said and analyze the sincerity of our voice (I told you he's Sherlock Holmes). It took us almost two hours, but we got through all of it and committed him to read some passages from the Book of Mormon. I'm excited to see what he thought. Highlight of the week was our Multizone Conference on Wednesday. We focused on our purpose as a missionary and we had some great trainings on teaching with authority and power, how to be a 'successful' missionary and teaching the Restoration of the gospel. My testimony has grown recently as I've noticed how important the message of the Restoration is. I firmly believe that we have a special understanding of the gospel, the good news, the Atonement of Jesus Christ and God's plan for us. There's no other message like this. At the end, President Bize asked each of us to write and present a 45-second talk on our purpose as a missionary. The textbook answer is "Invite others to come unto Christ through helping them to receive the restored gospel through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." But he asked us to share our personal purpose as a missionary. In all of the responses, it came out as a mix of why we decided to serve a mission, the parts of missionary work that are most important to us, our goals for however much of our mission we have left. If you're wondering, my reply was something only the lines of "My purpose is to help myself and othesr better come to know Heavenly Father and our Saviour, teach through the scriptures and help others to receive a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and to share important truths about the family, the plan of salvation, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ." What is your purpose as a member-missionary? How can you use your strengths to share the gospel?

Love you all,
Soeur Ladd

pictures to make up for short email!