Sister Brittany Robertson: Week 10 - I fell in love with missionary work

The most noteworthy thing from this week was that we had splits. So one of the Sister Training Leaders named Sister Arnold (she's American) came and really showed me how an ideal day should be. I don't know exactly what did it, but I really fell in love with missionary work on that day. We just really focused on the individual needs of those we are teaching instead of just going through the motions. We really tried to rely on the spirit and we saw the fruits of that sooo much! We taught EIGHT people that day- all amazinggg lessons. Thats a ton in one day, by the way. It just was so amazing and by the end of the day, I couldn't stop smiling. I really felt like a made an impact on bringing those we taught closer to Christ through my testimonies and words. It was an amazing day. We also found three new super prepared people to teach. So the Lord is amazing. I love this work, and this work is so real. Especially when you use every second of every day focused on the work.

This week had no rain MEANING we had SUNSETS. Oh did we have sunsets. Wow. Yeah. So basically I saw three amazing sunsets this week and I couldn't close my mouth and couldn't stop saying "wow". I took over 100 pictures and yeah THEY WERE GORGEOUS!!! I will attach some of the manyyy pictures I have of it. The beach is also a great place for finding people to teach around sunset cause everyone is there. So yeah. That's all. I love it here. I love sunsets. But anyone who knows me already knows that(((: But they all made my day 1000x better.

There was also one day hahha we got fed FIVE meals consecutively. Holy smokes I have never wanted to never eat again so bad. I thought I was gonna explode. We had never eaten at a member's house so it was the first day, and apparently everyone wanted to feed us that day so yeah I was sooooo full at the end of the day and Sister De Leon and I said we never wanted to eat again hahah but of course we have.

This week, we traveled to Bacolod to hear words from General Authorities and how amazing it was. The Young Women's General President and her husband came and then one of the members of the Area Presidency came (WHO IS FIJIAN BY THE WAY SO YAY FIJI) and it was spectacular. I felt so lucky to be a missionary and it was such a testament of the power they hold. Their words pierced my heart and I wish I could just copy and paste everything they said on here, but I can't.

Elder Wakolo (the Fijian) shared an amazing experience of an investigator a long time ago who 24 different missionaries visited. TWENTY FOUR. Thats a ton. He had gone to like 6 different churches and at that time was a Jehovah's Witness. He married a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but because he didn't believe in the Book of Mormon, forbade his wife to read the Book of Mormon in their household or even speak of her religion. She, then, the wife got her patriarchal blessing and it said she would one day be taken to the temple by her husband. Under the conditions she was in, she believed it would end up being a different husband because no way would this husband ever take her to the temple. The 23rd and 24th missionaries tried and tried to get him to join the church but he refused to believe in the Book of Mormon. Anyway, long story short, he challenged the missionaries to come to his house three nights in a row, and he would ask as many questions as he had and they would have to answer -- using the Bible only. This was an incredibly hard task and they did it. The third night, they decided to start with them asking a question. The question was "If you had a store, what would you call it?" He eventually, after thinking about it, answered "Well probably after my family name because its my store". The missionaries paused and said, "Well then don't you think it's appropriate that the founder of our church is what our church is named after?" This pierced his heart and asked one more question to end the night: "When can I be baptized?" AMAZING right?! I can't even imagine being those missionaries and trying to prepare for those three nights of questions without any amount of preparation for the questions. Of course, that husband eventually took his wife to the temple. And that husband is Elder Wakolo. That was his own conversion story. Wow. We were all amazed. The room was silent after that.

His message was simple and short. He said we need to be so in tune with the spirit so that anyone could ask us a question and we could say what they need to hear. He also said we need to be patient. Sometimes, we are only preparing people for future missionaries. If someone is not getting baptized, it does not mean we are doing something wrong, but that we should do everything we can to prepare them. Anyways, that's super long but it was amazing and we all talked about it for hours after that- just how amazing Heavenly Father is at preparing the people.

I love y'all so much and go out and spread this wonderful word with the world! They need it! Everyone needs this gospel.

Sister Robertson