Dear friends and family,
What a crazy week it has been. It has been getting very hot here. It was 90 the other day and it is only going to get hotter. One of the days, we were out biking and my companion skidded down a road with his brakes on and since it was quite a hot day, his rims were soft and his weight on the back tire bent it and so we had to walk the 4 miles back to our flat, one of which included carrying the messed up bicycle till we could leave it at a members house. It was quite an adventure. Since his bike was unusable, the next day required us to walk all around our area to our appointments. My feet were quite sore by the end of the day. We even got to the point of laying down in the middle of the sidewalk because Elder Sualevai has back problems. It was quite an adventure. We had a good amount of lessons and were very productive though which showed how much Heavenly Father will help us as long as we are willing to go out and work.
Thanksgiving was such an incredible day. I had an enormous feast, but it was feasting on the spirit and love of Christ in the temple. I can't think of a better activity to do on thanksgiving that spend it in the temple, learning about covenants and receiving personal revelation. As for an actual feast, well. . . . A peanut butter and jelly sandwich was a pretty decent meal considering there are so many other people in the world who have so much less and I was very grateful for it.
Another interesting experience that we had this week was while we were biking. We passed a house and this aboriginal lady came shuffling out of the house with a sad look on her face and she was calling out to us. We stopped to see what was the matter and she told us this long story about how her brother had committed suicide and her aunt was dieing in a hospital ages away and her son was apparently contemplating suicide. She asked us to pray for her and we did so. We gave her a book of Mormon and invited her to church and she said she would probably make it sometime. Later she asked us for money so she could get petrol(gas) so she could get home from the hospital which her aunt was at. While talking she also asked us to come in her house and cast out some evil spirits that were making her house a place that she couldn't stand to live in. We walked into her house and felt nothing different so we said a simple prayer that she would be able feel the spirit and be able to discern right from wrong. She told us about how much better she felt and we talked with her a little more about coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon. It was a very unique experience and hopefully it sparked her interest to learn more.
I have been having heaps of good experiences here and I have been learning so much more than I have ever learned. I hope for the best for all you reading this.
Elder Joshua Butts