Sister Leilani Kalona Finlayson

talofa lava !!  this week was one for the books, but here is what happened -->  - we went to the batting cages with some friends and had in n out afterwards. kymani had special ordered ours hahah i had no idea you could request even the smallest details to your fries and burgers... crazy - ^^ we went there for a friend we are teaching, Rolan. we met with him our first time at his house and he is super cool. he showed up to stake conference last week when i bore my testimony and afterwards some missionaries told us to go talk to him since he wants to get baptized and voila! everything is going great...he told one of the youth he is aiming to be baptized by the end of next month. crazy - a devotional with Elder Rasband - amongst polynesians, you tend to come across a lot of famous people. one being dinah jane, but another was someone i had no idea about lol. he just got put into the hall of fame though for football, Troy Polamalu, idk if any of you know him. But in addition, ...

TALOFFFAAA!  it was a pretty alright week. I was really ran down into the ground aka exhausted from the week prior. My body really gave out on me & I got sick for a few days so I was out of the work for a second. But I'm back, lively as ever lol! This week was really hard honestly. On top of being sick, I found out one of the families I am close with from Long Beach, the dad is on his death bed. I struggled knowing this but God really pulled me thru. It was everything to me to be reminded of His wonderful plan of salvation. I feel so blessed to be in this gospel !  Some things that happened this week ☆ i got called up last minute to speak in stake conference . . . it went well lol ! I am a fan of public speaking so :) but I was very stressed. The spirit was telling me to go thru my study journal the entire meeting & I just KNEW I was going up to bear testimony but it wasn't until last minute the stake president had announced my name lol.  ☆ we had a talent night w...

Hi everyone ! This is such a late email, but I just wanted to send a quick letter home !!  This week was, as always, full of miracles. I witnessed God's hand & promises unfold as this week we really dedicated ourselves to His work. Well, we had no choice BUT to do His work this week lol. I am in the best ward ever !! They are all so missionary minded && keep us very, very accountable. I am stressed, anxious, exhausted, but never has time felt so fast & joyful. Every night I'd get about 4 hours ( IF I WAS LUCKY ) of sleep. One day I was up for 21 hours just doing work & it was the most energized I felt all week. I look back on this week truly shocked. Because no way could I have done what we did without the Lord strengthening & enabling me !! Our Samoan ward has 522 members plus our Tongan ward has 200 - 300 ish members. SO, we made it a goal to meet everybody in both wards. In addition to that, the stake president asked if we could invite members on ever...

talofa lava !!  it was a special week full of so many blessings from God. it was so special.  I felt so many prayers & fasts answered as we went about our week !! ☆ i got to poi ball dancing !! best day of the week. I walked into an activity for our Samoan youth ward & one of the ladies asked if I could perform a number & i totally freaked out lol. She taught me something quick & it was so much fun. I miss it & I love my culture !!  ☆ so. many. activities !! youth activities have started back up so we are busyyy with being with them since our leaders want us with them always !!  ☆ we visited SO SO SO many families. we want to meet every single member... and they're 493 . . . in just one of our wards. talk about crazy. busy. !!  ☆ i am staying in the ward of zion for another 6 weeks <3 I feel SO BLESSED.  God is so so good. No other way to describe Him. This week I have learned so much about how the simple things are God. Sometimes we ...

good morning !!  what a very blessed week it was. as usual :) here's the rundown: ☆ its missionary month !! YAY for August. our wards are going super hard for this month on missionary mindedness.  ☆ anaheim 8th samoan ward camp !! finally it is over. we only dropped in at night but boy am I exhausted from it so I can't imagine all the members who stayed 24/7 lol ! every night there was a big event, movie night, talent night, and a fiafia dance night. it made me so thankful to be in this ward so that I could experience their culture but also see some REAL love between everyone !! they said, tasi alofa. one love. & they were so right.  ☆ we had a 2 hour testimony meeting on Sunday :)) it was very very very long. but 6 of our friends showed up. true miracle. however 2 hours. poor souls hahaha.  they didn't mean to do that but one lady talked forrrever so our bishop just let all those who were already in line go up... which happened to be an extra 20 people. however ...