July 14th

Kia Ora!

This week has been pretty good! We've taught a Recent Convert all of the lessons that he gets after his baptism. Our finding this week has been pretty dead. Crazy! Anyways!

Biggest news this week! Both my companion and I are being transferred on Wednesday. Crazy! We won't be finding out who our new companions and what our areas are going to be until tomorrow! Crazy!

Anyways. Wanted to share the conversion story of some members, the Malone's, that are in Ham East.

"...His mum was baptised when she was young, but went [Less-Active]. The missionaries got wind, and came. The mum said to Bro Malone to get rid of them. Didn't work out too well. ;-) He let them come back, and he was baptised 4 weeks later. He's good at getting rid of [missionaries]. ;-) His brother followed a month later. The mum is now mostly active.

"Anyways, he served a mission. Didn't get married [and stayed single until he was] 29 [years] old. [Became a s]inger in a band. Went to this bar to play, and talked w/ this lady--the bar-lady. They really hit it off. He questioned w/ God [afterwards in the car on the way home] the motives & the happenings of this and [he] still felt good about it. (He [made sure to counsel] us to not go looking for a wife in a bar.)

"...he prayed hard and asked God about it, and he felt good about it. He felt that they should marry, and eventually convert her, and [that eventually] they would be sealed in the temple. Anywho, his brother strongly suggested that it would be a terrible idea, and that he was receiving false revelation. But Bro Malone went ahead. He reckons that God was laughing [this whole time].

They got married, and the subject of religion came up. Sis Malone was Baptist (She had kinda turned away from God because her father had passed away recently, and when she asked a preacher 'Where is my dad?' He said that because her dad wasn't a Christian [and he was an Atheist], and he didn't do the Christian ordinances, he was, 'let's put it this way, he's not in heaven.' So she turned away from what she thought was an unfair God.) [When] Bro Malone said he was a Latter-day Saint, [she replied:] 'What is that?' [He said] 'Also called Mormons.' 'Ah.' She thought 'Let's agree to disagree. Let's not talk about religion, because you won't convert me.' [He replied] 'I don't think I'll convert you either.' He knew the Spirit would do the converting.

"He set a [Book of Mormon] on the couch weeks later and invited her to read the intro. She said she wouldn't, and it was left at that.

"Weeks later, he came home from work, and much to his surprise, there were Sister Missionaries in their sitting room. As it turns out, she did read the intro. She called the Bishop of Bro Malone's ward, and they talked. The Bishop sent Sisters over. Bro Malone asked about the Sisters, and Sis Malone said she was getting baptised. It took 4 discussions, but during the 4th, she stopped it and said ' I need to get baptised, and it needs to be this weekend.' She didn't want anything to happen (i.e. death, etc.) before she could get the blessings of the church. So, Bro Malone's brother was to do the baptising, but everything was going wrong. The Bishop took Bro Malone aside and said 'You need to baptise her.' They everything went smoothly.

"In retrospect, Sis Malone said 'at the stages we were both at, we wouldn't have been able to meet anywhere but at the bar.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways. Very mysterious."

Anywho, that's all for this week. I don't have too much more time.

Arohanui to all of you!

E. Staheli