Miracle Baptism

"It takes broken clouds to make rain.
It takes broken ground to make grain.
It takes broken grain to make bread.
It takes broken bread to remember Him.
It took a broken Savior to provide the Atonement.
It takes a broken us to accept His offering.
The Lord loves broken things--cause we're all just a little bit broken,
But the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal broken things."
(Elder Nielson, from the Presidency of the Pacific Area, shared this
with us this at 'Eua's Stake Conference)

This past weekend all the members in 'Eua prepared for Stake Conference and for the change in their Stake Presidency. They looked their very best, some of them washed their cars, and they all arrived like an hour early...to every meeting. Elder Tukuafu (from the 70) and Elder Nielson came and spoke. It was great because Elder Nielson spoke in English and it was translated to Tongan so I understand everything he said! In a meeting with the stake leaders we were invited to, he talked about the importance of educating ourselves in every area of our life.  As leaders, we must be educated in order to help the younger generation. He later talked about member missionary work and how the Lord doesn't want us to necessarily WORK HARDER but to WORK SMARTER. And of course, we had a huge feast after all of the meetings of really good food.

Middle part. Braids. Black Ribbons. No Make-up. Uniform. Flip Flops. This is my life. Very low Maintenance. Very different. But I think I actually like it.

Anyways, this past week we got two baptisms! It was a miracle. We thought we had no progressing investigators but then some members informed us that there were two kids who had been taught by the missionaries a couple times but were unable to be baptized because their grandma wouldn't let them (even though the mom, who attends the Church of Tonga, said it would be okay). The members have been working with this family for many years. But somethings played out and the grandma gave the "okay"! We taught them all the lessons again to make sure they were ready for the interview and Malei (8 years old) and Keio (10 years old) were baptized. On the day of their baptism, the font wouldn't fill up (it took 2 hours to fill up 3 inches haha) so we moved it to another building-and it all worked out! The kids were so tough because the water was freezing! Love them so much. We're going to work with their mom next :)

Our neighbor across the street receives boxes from her family in America each month of food and stuff and she shares it with us because she doesn't like sweet things! So when fafanga (our food appointment) falls through we go over and eat Nutella and pancakes and Syrup and ice cream...if I get fat, it won't be from the Tongan food...it will be from their kitchen ;) But the Tongan food is actually pretty good! And the members are SO nice to feed us twice a day!!! They are very nice people and I'm so grateful to be here!

Always so much to say, so little time...hope you're all doing well!!!
Love you all so much! Choose the right.

Ofa Lahi Atu!!
Sister Reid

p.s. the internet is too slow to send pictures...but I'm going to keep trying :)