Changes and miracles

good morning everyone!

It was a great week full of changes.

☆ The biggest change tho? Tahia became a member of the church of Jesus christ of latter day saints aka she was baptized !! it was a day we have been long awaiting for & I am so proud of her; she really is like a baby sister to me :')

☆ we got put into a trio with Sister Bradfield from TX

☆ and the Fourth of Julyyyy !! My favorite holiday; the best day ever....but not in CA. nothing will beat Soda lol....it was pretty sucky here. We spent the day with Tahia's baptism but then at night did nothing; my comps didn't wanna watch the fireworks so I sat in our somewhat open parking lot just listening to the fireworks that sounded like WWIII -- still a very good one <3 !!

I saw so many miracles this week and one being --> I was having a few tough days this last week. From Tuesday - today 🤣 lol But it was super tough for me and one day I stepped outside for my personal study & just cried my eyes out to God in a prayer about how tough everything was for me and that all I needed was a hug, text, or even just the comfort from the spirit && thats when everything started to fall into place. Our day resulted in us going to the mission office & after awhile of being there I had a letter come in from my mama/dad -- the biggest surprise & blessing from God! It was like my very own hug from my mom/dad && God ! So again, I bawled my eyes out for the reason being that God is so so aware. He hears your prayers & He has everything perfectly aligned for you. It was a testament to me that God knows everything before we do. He inspired my mom days before knowing full well that I'd be struggling 2 days later. So, any time you feel alone, reach out in prayer to God & let Him know the things you need (even though He already knows 😉)

Manuia le vaiaso !! Alofa atu 🤍

sister fin <3

Comments

No more Lying!!!

hiiii ! it was a good week:) ☆ ward picnic for labor day, it was so much fun ! we went to Modjeska park for the whole day lol. ☆ park day with the faletoi/schuster fam ! ahzira is my bff (the one also w the crumbl box lolol!) ☆ this guys uncle is from the hawaii 5-0 show so he wanted to brag with his picture ! **below ☆ met the Tili family who asked if we could help their son, Ike, get baptized by October 2...yay ! ☆ met with Cilla & went over her baptism things for September 25 :) ☆ funny story . . . SO my soa & I (comp & I) were walking around temple grounds in Newport Beach which is covered by a different mission. (Yes we have permission to go there). We saw a lot of missionaries & we took our tags off because we didn't feel like talking with any of them (it was a ROUGH week for us to say the least) & yet somehow some elders managed to talk to my soa while I was looking at the temple. She walks away with them & I was like ?!...

I loved this week

This week was one for the books !! It was a crazy busy week & the days just flew by. I realized I don't share too much about my week or anything too spiritual lol but that can change !! So to start off, Monday night our entire mission got chastised by the president lol. Then Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday we had exchanges & Sunday we had a baptism with David !! It was a week of A LOT of self reflection & seeing the areas I can improve . . . plus a lot of fun !! This weeks exchanges I got to be with Sister Ratcliff, Sister Mattice, and Sister Ware !! I learned a lot from each sister & since it was a self reflecting week...I asked each sister & every return missionary member what they learned from their missions && believe it or not, every single one of them said they learned their identity as a daughter of God. It was tender to hear because I do forget my identity as Heavenly Fathers daughter, very often. Seeing the past experiences of my miss...

Absence

The clock strikes 12:47am. My companions rush hurriedly to the door. I make my way down the stairs, trying not to fall asleep. As I felt the cool air brush against my face, I pull my blanket to me, angrily mumbling. I stare at the asphalt covered in droplets of rain but when I eyes revert to whats ahead of me, I deeply longed to go back in time 20 seconds prior. My heart sunk deep in my stomach as if it was the titanic. I look to my phone and the word 'absence' appeared as my daily common word from the Word Web app. I chuckled at how ironic this vocabulary applied to my very situation in the moment. Our car was absent. We won't go into detail but we actually found our car hahah after like 20 mins, we are just dumb ! I actually laughed so hard when I saw the word absence though because I truly felt called out by my own phone haha. But it was a wild adventure... I got to spend the night at some sisters apartment on the hardwood floor. Got 3 hours of sleep with a 6 hour me...

Sister Leilani Kalona Finlayson