We started off the day by walking just randomly to the chapel (for no reason) and found Sister Edwards there taking care of the Garden! So we talked to her for a bit about how we should focus on Less Actives and stuff. We then were walking back to our flat when we saw this CRAZY old lady (lots of those in Gore), but this lady could barely move. Her walker had fallen off the back of her electric wheelchair and so we were able to help her and get her back on her way. The Lord probably put her in our path so that people could see why we are here.
We then went on a rescue mission to Mataura (part of my new area) and brought Brother Clark along to see if he could help us out visiting people he knew! So we had okay success with him. We met 1 less active with Brother Clark's help.
So Brother Clark said that he needed to go and he would drop us off by our car, but me and Vaha'i asked if he could drop us off just where we were so we could walk! We decided to knock on Kayla Hema's door.
Background on her: She was door knocked by past Elders and seemed super prepared! She took a Book of Mormon and said that she had read much of it! But the past like 10 times that I have gone over to meet her she hasn't been there!!
Back to the story. We walked up to her door and were just about to knock when we heard someone coming up to us from the front gate! I asked if it was her, and she said yes, and she also said something very surprising to me. She said "Yeah the past dudes that gave me the book of mormon were nice and all but I'm done. I don't really want you guys over or anything to learn." I asked her what the problem was and she said "there isn't any proof. There is no evidence that your book and religion is right. I can't live my life based off faith. That just seems stupid."
I didn't really know what to say for a couple seconds. But I remembered some MTC training. Silence is okay. So I sat for a second. And the spirit just told me to bare my testimony. I bore my testimony on how God gave us liberty and freedom to choose. She had many questions about the pre earth life and Satan being brothers with Jesus. Amazingly I had studied that very thing that morning. I explained to her our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and how this Gospel has blessed me in my life and my family! I asked her if she felt blessed to have a family and she said yes. We had a long discussion (guided by the spirit) about how living a gospel of Jesus Christ, the perfect example, would be a good life to have even if you didn't believe in our teachings. She agreed and she totally flipped her mood toward us. We set an appointment to go and teach her about everything on Wednesday. We will start with the Restoration but also see what questions she has. This was the best experience I have had so far in this area.
So me and Vaha'i were pumped after this and just decided to keep going and visiting people! We received a referral from a member in Invercargill about her son! Jaden Kahuroa. He lives on River Street Mataura. We went over there and it was a little sketchy at first. We heard he was a "naughty boy" or whatever so we just went over expecting whatever. It was dark inside and He was with a couple mates. One of them was crazy tipsy and came up to the door and started talking about religion and how crazy it all is. He said he didn't believe in science and only God haha. Very weird guy. We asked if Jaden was around and he was super cool!! He said he is at one of the lowest points in his life and was praying for help.. He lifted up his pant leg and showed an ankle tracker on his leg and said he was stuck in that house for another month. But we asked if we could go over and start teaching and visiting him, He was like "Yeah bros, sweet as!" We started talking about how he wanted to start on the straight and narrow again. How he used to be active as a young boy and now wants to start going again with his partner and kids!!
So after that, me and Vaha'i are on a missionary high. We just want to talk to everyone and anyone, so we kept visiting houses and inviting to church. It was so fun!!
We drove back to our flat and I told Vaha'i I didn't want to just sit around with the spirit so strong! We should go out again. So me and him just rode our bikes around Gore for about an hour but nothing happened. So when we finished that up I decided I wanted to go take pictures of the birds in the Garden Park across the street (something I could have done any other time in my first 3 months of Gore). And we were there for like a half hour. It seemed like a long time but I was just feeling so peaceful and amazing there! I was over by the Peacocks and trying to take photos of them with cool feathers, but they weren't having it!
Some random lady came up to us and started talking to us about how it isn't the right season and that the male is too young or something. It was cool of her to stop and talk to us! So when she was about to leave she turned back and stopped! She said,"actually, I need to tell you guys something.. I'm a Mormon."
Me and Vaha'i were just like....... Uhhhhhhhhhh, hahahaha, it's so weird to find mormons here in Gore and we didn't know why were were at the bird cages or why we were there so long.. but wow. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much this weekend!!
We had 20 people come to church and this was a week where I had to conduct sacrament! Usually we only have like 4 come!!
And later on Sunday we got a call from the Beckmanns (senior couple) who are in Hamilton doing temple work before it closes for a couple years. They said they prayed soooo hard for us in the celestial room the day before. They even have our branch on the prayer role!
It is amazing how the Lord blesses us!!! I couldn't believe what had happened this weekend!! I'm so lucky to have this gospel and I can't wait to share it more and more and more!!!!!!!! I love you all! Have a great week.
--
Elder LaMunyon
