Buota

September 11, 2016

Hey guys, I'm running a little short on time but I'll hit it up with a quick update.

I've now been in Buota since the end of July, but I'm still in my first month of training my Tongan-American companion Elder Tuikolovatu. He's the man and it's already been a good experience training. I'm grateful for the opportunity to train. The branch here in Buota is still a little bit of a struggle, but we are trying our best. Most weeks we have between 70 and 80 people at church. We have been working a lot with less active members and it's been rewarding to bring a couple of less active Melchizidek priesthood holders back to church. We are trying to get them re-activated and keep them active.

We have lots of investigators and some families, but it is a challenge because the chapel is far away and many of them work on Sundays.  But we do have one investigator I really want to tell you about.

Ten Otineiti: A 110% golden investigator. Never smoked, drank, etc. He's a 30+ year old guy who's a fireman at the airport. His wife and sister are recent converts of one year but he refused to listen to missionaries for a super long time because he was a really firm protestant. A couple of weeks ago, we came to their house and I felt prompted to ask him if he wanted lessons and he shocked us and said yes. It's gotten better and better since then. He legit has the strongest testimony and just little miracles have been happening to help things out. He went and bought a white shirt and ties and then got work off all by himself without even being prompted by us to do so.  (That's unheard of here.) And then all these crazy little things happened and somehow he was able to come to church yesterday after it seemed like Satan was trying to do all he could to keep him from it. He told us that he has gained a testimony and won't move from it. It was pretty easy to see the Lord's hand in it all. His wife bore her testimony in our lesson and said how this was one of the happiest days of her life and she felt so happy that her husband was led to the truth and how she knew that this was the true church. If he can come to church next week, then he will be ready for baptism. Legit why I was sent here! I know he's going to stay strong and is exactly what this branch needs as he will prepare himself in time to become a Melchizdek priesthood holder.

That's pretty much it. <3 Love you guys and I would love to hear from everyone! The church is true.

Elder Parrish