Life as a Trainer and Learning Napali

This past week has been a trial of faith but both my companion and i were able to grow and learn from the experiences that we had. Nothing too exciting happened on Monday so Ill just skip that and go on to Tuesday. Tuesday: Today we had new missionary training. So all of the new missionaries and their trainers had to go. It was a really good meeting and really helped me to see what i needed to do as a trainer to try and help my trainee become the best missionary that she can be. So that meeting took up most of the day but then after that we went out and taught. There has been a little bit of confusion about our dinner schedule because we rotate between our spanish ward and the english wards so we had DOUBLE dinner today. Im grateful that we are being fed but hope that i dont have to re-live that painful experience ever again haha. I was grateful that heavenly father blessed me with a second stomach today. One of the cool experiences that we had today was actually with an english-speaking person. Some of our appointments for the day didnt follow through so we were just going out on the street and talking to everyone and anyone that we saw. Anyway there was a guy sitting under a tree and we were just going to say hello and then move on. So we said Hi how are you today? and he responded and said awful. Soo we stopped and talked to him more. He was about 26. He said that he had had an awful day that started with losing his wallet that contained his passport and social security card and everything that you dont want to lose. Then he lost his phone and couldnt call to contact anyone. I think that he had some mental disability because he wasnt quite all there but he said that he had decided that he was going to sit under that tree until 4:44. He vented about his experience for a little bit and then we asked him what he wouldve been doing if he hadnt lost his wallet and he said probably be out drinking. So we started to teach him and introduced the Book of Mormon to him. We invited him to take it and read it but he said no. Then we shared one of the stories from the book of mormon with him and read with him. then he decided that he wanted to take the book and give it to someone he felt needed it. Its so cool that the book of mormon can change people's hearts because it is just full of pure doctrine. I hope that you all can continue reading the book of mormon with me and i know that as you do that your testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ with be strengthened. Wednesday: So on top of bettering my spanish speaking abilities here on the mission, i am also learning NAPALI! crazy huh? I think i almost run into more napalis here than i do hispanics haha. Anyway so today we were trying to contact a former investigator so we were knocking on a door and then their next door neighbor opened the door. He was from india but understood napali fluently and had just moved here about 15 days ago. so we started to just chat with him and he said oh youre the mormons. we said yeah we are, what do you know about us. Then he just started going into all of the things that his mormon friend in colorado had taught him about this church. So we started to teach him the restoration and then extended the baptismal invitation and he said that yeah he wanted to be baptized about a year ago but his family was against it. He is 21 and loves the gospel so we handed him over to the napali elders so they can continue to work with him. It was a really neat experience where i could really see that missionaries are blessed with the gift of tongues. So i didnt speak a lot of napali but just the little bit that i knew was enough to help him understand our message. Thursday: So i love that we see little miracles every day and that they are completely dependent on our faith. So we are currently teaching this 17 yr old girl, Veronica. She is about 5 months pregnant and is living with her boyfriend. She loves going to church and she loves feeling the spirit every time we are in her house. So we went over and taught her the restoration and then she said that she really wanted to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. So we invited her to pray with us right then and ask heavenly father specifically if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God so she did. Then we invited her to take her book of mormon and open it up to any page so she did. then we invited her to pick any verse on that page so she did and this was really cool. She opened to 3 Nefi 5:1. READ IT and then youll probably react the same way that i did. I promise you heavenly father answers prayers. This was such a cool experience that we had this week. I love the Book of Mormon. Friday was just district meeting and we talked about how we can help our investigators to progress. Saturday: we all received a text message saying that we were not allowed to go to the BYU vs U of U game for any reason at all haha. Didnt even know that was going on that day. Also we only had some minor bike problems today so that was a relief. I think i got a preview of what itll be like on a bike during the winter cause its starting to get really cool in the mornings and at night, hopefully its a mild one again this year. Sunday: We were supposed to have a baptism today but Satan was working really hard on our investigator and we were not able to get ahold of her at all this past week. We called and texted and stopped by but none of that seemed to do anything. Something I learned today: even if we do all that we can to help the people we teach, we can not control their agency. At least if we do everything we can, heavenly father will help us out later on. SO right now everything is going great. I love the area I am serving in. The people are so humble and i am learning a lot from them. Training has been going well too. Its different but i am learning and growing a lot right now. My spanish has improved so i am really grateful for that and sister bragg is getting better every day. I hope you have a good week!! Next week we are doing a trek in This Is the Place Park on our Pday so emails will be on tuesday :) I love you!

Hermana Adorable with her first trainee, Hermana Bragg