"an awakening of how short the time that I have here is" by Sister Koroitamana

Hello Friends!

How've you been?

 

This week is Sister Rudd's last full week as a Missionary and Being with Sister Rudd has really given me somewhat of an awakening of how short the time that I have here is. The whole week just watching her trying to accept the fact that she'll be going home soon was really hard. It really made me want to give the Lord my best and really persevere and enjoy till the end.

 

We have an investigator named Erika. She's amazing! She met Missionaries in Irvine College where she goes to school and she's home for the Summer and will be getting baptized on September 7th! I can't believe it'll be September soon. She is sooo excited! She loves the Book of Mormon. In one of our lessons with her we had asked her about what the Book of Mormon was to her and she said simply "it's the Book I love to read" :) Erika is a Blessing. We are also teaching another guy named Gary. He is Funny! We hadn't been able to meet with him much this week but although we couldn't get a hold of him he still came to church!!! He loved it and is doing great. We are hoping to set a Baptismal Date with him this week:)

 

This past weekend our YSA Branch hosted a dance for all the YSA's in the Area. We went over to help them set up and stuff. As we were preparing they turned off the lights and brought the bright lights on the dance floor and the DJ started playing music. Oh my Goodness I can't really describe how I felt when that happened. But I just felt so scared and knew that we couldn't be there. I told my companion that we needed to go and I was so glad that she felt the same. A member had told us in that in the past there were some Missionaries who had stayed for the dance and had joined them too. I was like oh No!  We came back home and I reflected on what had just happened and I was a little shocked at how I felt and it felt good to know that I've come to rely on the spirit so much that I'm so scared to lose his companionship in my life.

 

Also I am serving in my first stake again and it's really great to be back. We visited a family that I had visited almost a year ago now when I was serving in Manhattan Beach and it was so great to see them all!!! Their children who are not members were home and it was perfect because they were YSA age:) Their names are Avy, Robert and Aris. We have Bible studies every Thursdays and it was so great because they all came to that and had a great time:) Their Father (Brother Rainey) is super less active. He is such a good person. He served a Mission as well and I don't really know what happened. I'm praying that in teaching his children the Lord will touch his heart and help him come back to church.

 

We had Zone conference this week as well and it was so good! Oh I needed that:)

I love you!!!

Sister Koroitamana