100 anos of discipleship and faith has been a great inspiration to me and millions of others across the globe. His example of pure love and unwavering obedience is something I strive for not only in my mission but personal life.
Sorry y’all, I don’t have to much motivation to write about the mission right now. Everything’s good, just progressing slower than I’d like. This week we had some adventures chasing after members and friends as well as deep cleaning our house. I found a ping pong and I am currently the reigning champion of the house.
Please message me during the week about your favorite conference talks, scriptures, or spiritual experiences. I’m looking for some deep inspiration, obrigada!!
Alyssa and Sister Motuga give a thumbs up in front of a blow up dog
Alyssa with a flower in her braided hair
Happy September!!! I hope everyone is winding down and getting ready for fall. I’m just getting ready for Summer over here.
This week we had so many cool experiences and miracles but even though my heart is full, my head is empty and I don’t feel like I can write adequately so I’m just gonna give y’all a week-in-review.
Tuesday: Divisão with S. Viana, it was pretty good we had some deep conversations about pre-mortal life and got car sick together.
Wednesday: Ate some delicious pastels for our Companionship study and studied some powerful hymns of Christlike service.
Thursday: Got sick and had to stay home. While in bed, I watched all the old seminary videos on Gospel Library including the 1986 Man’s Search for Happiness
Friday: Was still sick in the morning but got better as the day went on. Got to look at a potential new apartment.
Saturday: Did our reference secretary duties and attended a 2-hour meeting to plan a hopefully soon wedding
Sunday: 4 Friends came to church as well as some recent converts who haven’t been coming for a while
Scripture of the day is 1 Nephi 17:50-51: “And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done. And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?”
I love this verse because we can put in any of our challenges or obstacles in this formula and realize that God is here to bless and strengthen us. If He is the God of Miracles who has done such marvelous things in the lives of others, why do we sometimes doubt that He’s capable of doing them in ours? I promise that no matter the difficulty, God will teach you to overcome it.
Alyssa and Sister Motuga by the sign outside the Candeias chapel
Alyssa and Sister Motuga outside under an umbrella
A group of puppies licks Alyssa’s feet
What’s up guys? I hope everyone had a great week. Mine was great and challenging as I pray it always will be. I’d like to share an insight I had from this week’s “Come, Follow Me” reading.
In the 56th chapter of Alma, in a very well-known story, the 2,000 stripling warriors are faced with a question. They’ve been hoofing it all day trying to out-march the Lamanite army when suddenly, the Lamanites stop and they lose track of them. Helaman doesn’t know if they’ve stopped to try and lure his young soldiers into a hopeless battle or if the army of Antipus caught up with them from behind. He asks his youth army what they want to do if they want to go back and fight. They respond with a resilient “Let us Go Forth.”
The boy soldiers said “let us go forth” when in reality they we’re going back. They had to turn around and head into the battle not press on in their current direction. Sometimes we need to realize that in order to “go forth” we must “go back.”
I liked this story this week because it reminded me of what I’m doing. Me and my companion were thrown into this area with very little to go off. We knew nobody, didn’t know our way around, and we felt a little hopeless in the face of a lot of stigma about the area. Most missionaries when white-washing an area like to throw everything and everyone out the window and start finding all new people. Me and my comp felt that was not going to be an effective strategy. We felt that in order to “go forth” we too had to “go back”.
We re-found so many people who maybe in their first encounter with the missionaries weren’t exactly golden investigators and many still aren’t. But there were those who had been changed, had their hearts softened, and were now prepared to hear our message. One that stuck out to me was someone we called Friday night. We gave him a great lesson and at the end he said, “Thanks for not forgetting about me, I didn’t even know how much I was needing this.”Â
We can’t forget about the people that the Lord is still preparing. If they said no to you yesterday, you don’t have to carry that no with you into the eternities. Give them a little time and a little nurturing and eventually, they’ll come around. If you feel stuck in your spiritual progress and can’t seem to find a way around the obstacles in your path, maybe you need to “go back” before you can “go forth.” Who knows if there’s not someone in your past that you need in order to succeed in the future?
A selfie of Alyssa and Sister Motuga with a horse statue
Big surprise …*drum roll*… I got TRANSFERRED!!!!! …. again. In case you lost track this is my 7th area and 9th companion in 13 months. I promise I’m not a problem child, I just get moved around a lot.
Anyway, I’m in the Candeias ward, it’s pretty infamous for being a difficult area but until now, I’ve had a blast. It’s mostly street and member work, the area is almost entirely apartment buildings. But God is blessing us every step of the way. The best part of the transfer is my new companion…
I LOVE SISTER MOTUGA!!!! She is the sweetest human being on the planet. She’s Samoan but was raised in New Zealand and Australia. Her accent alone cures all my stress and frustration. She’s 25 and has 6 months on the mission. But everyone in the mission knows her as the niece of Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson!?!?!
I didn’t believe her at first ’cause who would believe something like that, but FamilySearch confirmed it so now I’m a believer. Unfortunately, she has no photos with him and can’t call him on P-day but we’re networking with her cousins to try to get him to make a video for the mission. I’ll update you if we make any progress.
I’d like to conclude this ramble with a spiritual thought.
Alma 52:10: “…Be faithful in maintaining that quarter of the land, and … seek every opportunity … to fortify and strengthen the cities round about, which [have] not fallen…”
When I feel worried about an area or absolutely lost in the work, I remember that God has trusted this place, this ward, and these people to me and my companion. We are here to be faithful in our stewardship, to fortify and strengthen what is already here and to seek every opportunity for growth. It’s a big responsibility but not one that we take on alone, He is at the head of this work. As His servants, we are entitled to His divine help and protection.
