Hey everyone,  Happy Thanksgiving!!!

      This week went really well.  In fact,  I have a funny story for all of you and it's an example that we need to follow as missionaries and members of this church! This last week we were sitting in the house of a man named Taumola'a.  He is the first counselor in the bishopric and he is AWESOME. This week had been really slow for teachings and my companion and I were feeling pretty downtrodden to be honest! So, we asked him, because whenever we need help he is always there! So, we asked him if he could think of anyone we could share a discussion with and he told us,  "No" ... then he promptly stood up walked to the street (we were sitting on the porch) He waited there about 3 minutes.  The first person to walk by,  he grabs them talks to them for about 3 minutes and next thing we know we are sitting in his house sharing the first lesson with this young lady. It was incredible! He did that 3 more times that night so, we taught the first lesson 4 times that night with people he just invited in off the side of the road! LOVE HIM!

      At the moment,  we now have about 2 progressing investigators and a couple people who are interested. We do have a very promising 16 year old girl who is very excited and I'm pretty sure she is just waiting for us to invite her to be baptized! This last week we taught about 6 lessons and we had 12 pomalangas (spiritual thoughts to members.  We try to at least do 2 a day at dinner time and at a member's house we want to visit!) They are always very excited to have the missionaries over and they take it as receiving blessings by just giving missionaries a glass of water! It's awesome! Here we never teach without a member present.  In fact,  we put on our other lessons taught as a zero everyday because we choose to only go with members. The best part is that members always come to the lessons and are always more than welcoming with doing the fellowshipping.  It's amazing and the fact that they always feed us right after is best the part of the teaching! This last week I think the best experience I had was when Taumola'a went out and grabbed those people. It really is amazing to me how he can go out and just share the gospel with who ever is standing next to him. I plan on doing the exact same thing when I get home. It's a testimony builder to me that he is so willing and loving to just share it with everyone! 
     Church this week was your typical crazy Tongan event! Lots of loud kids and I gave a talk on faith! That's always funny seeing the members all going quiet at once waiting to see what the palangi says! haha And, as usual, I butchered a few parts of my talk because this language is not an easy language!  
So,  let's see,  in my down time this week my companion and I decided to sit on the porch and I played Folofola mai a Sisu on the ukulele and anyone who stopped by or sat to talk,  we would give them a pamphlet to the Fakafokimai o'e ongoongolelei o Sisu Kalaisi! The restoration pamphlet! We gave away about 6 or 7 and then just continued on singing:)

      OK, Mom,  pertaining to your talk, I actually have something I can add for you. Recently my mission president gave the challenge to restart the Book of Mormon or just start it again and read all the way through it before December 31st! Well,  I prayed really hard before I started and I decided to read it in English because I can't keep up with the quota in Tongan.  It's 16 pages a day in Tongan and 12 in English and my reading in Tongan isn't fast enough to do 16.  I can do about 8 to 10 pages fully comprehending everything. Tongan is a very vague language and hard to read since so many words have 8 different meaning in English! As I was saying,  so,  after I prayed I came to the conclusion that I wanted to underline every time the The Book of Mormon mentioned our Heavenly Father or His Son. And as I was doing that I stumbled across a word that I seemed to always look over but I've realized is the key to this Gospel and that is Diligence. See,  if you look in your talk,  it mentions that word! The problem is that we all look at that word as a descriptive word! You know? Diligently pray, diligently work, and diligently read. The problem is that we only see the second word in that pray, work, and read. We don't pay attention to the word before which is more important DILIGENCE! I've realized that this word is the key to everything if we continue in diligence,  not anything specific but just diligence to keep the commandments and to follow the Christ like attributes that have been set out for us then we will be fine in fact in Mosiah 3:19 19: For the natural man is an enemy  to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. and putteth  off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child,  submissive,  meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. This verse talks about everything we need to follow and do right? But, if you continue reading into chapter 4, King Benjamin is still continuing his address and he is about to finish!! and look what he saysin Chapter 27: And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.  He says it right there! Just be diligent! And so,  I'm never overlooking that word again.  It will no longer be a descriptive word to me.  It will be the more important word! Because if we are just diligent then we will always be blessed!

I love you all have a great Thanksgiving!!

Elder Sepeti