Learning to love

This last transfer is going to one to remember. It will be a busy one as we had mission leadership conference this week, conferences all around the main island next week, and then we go to Ha'apai and Vava'u for conferences the following week. The last part of this week was a valuable bit of time for us to do some exchanges with the sisters and actually work in our own area. I learned to LOVE these sisters and our new little area even more. I think i mentioned that our new area- Kahoua- is where Sister Makasini's family lives, so here is a picture of me with her mom. We challenged her mom to help us with the missionary work. She is such an adorable old woman, and she gave us a bag of American chocolates. :). i also attached a photo of my japanese friend we met at the airport, my favorite fruit here in Tonga-- Tava, and an adorable chubby little boy named Kingy :)

I think the message i would like to share with you all this week is "leave it all on the field."

that is the quote we put on the front of our missionary daily planner for this transfer. To my companion and i it means to give EVERYTHING you have got and go to sleep at night without regrets, knowing you did your best. I think sometimes in life we can be like the man from the parable of the talents who was given one talent and he buried it for fear of losing it. We hold ourselves back from our potential out of fear of something bad happening. Sometime i see missionaries who sit silently in the lessons and won't speak because they are afraid of making a mistake with the language. Sometimes i see investigators who are afraid to try to quit smoking because they think they might have a relapse. In this mission i have learned to take a leap of faith. Go out and work with that talent no matter how small it is and surprisingly, it will double and triple and so on... Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. If you do it to serve the Lord, he will qualify you for whatever the task may be. 

These last few weeks of my time here is Tonga, i commit to leave it all on the field. Even though my talents may not be that great, i'm gonna put them all out there in the open. Talk to everyone, everywhere. Love everyone. Repent daily. And SOOO much more. This week i saw so many little miracles as a result. Here's to 4 more weeks of miracles.

I love you all. Don't hold yourselves back from blessings. Leave it all on the field. <3

--

Sister Emily Bever

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission