Sister Leila Wihongi: May 2025

Talofa lava, o'u āiga ma uo! ♡

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God has blessed us with another week! This week will be transfers, so I'll either be leaving Sili or staying. I honestly am fine with transferring, as long as I stay in Savaii.

Last week was good and it was faithfully stretching for me. To give you background, Sister Solovi and I were not talkers before the mission. We both have quite the shy backgrounds. So what we accomplished last week really shows that "[We] can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth [us]." (Philippians 4:13)

What I meant by that is I usually share a prepared scripture with a memorized testimony to go along with it. But this time, when Sister Solovi and I visited the family that had the maliu funeral last week, I shared a scripture from The Book of Mormon I felt prompted to and tried to share an experience along with my testimony. (This was after they fed us, bless their souls). Oh buddy, tears were shed. From me, not the family . And, man, it didn't look like what I shared affected them. But it sure did affect me. That was the blimey first time I've ever done that. It sure wasn't perfect, but it strengthened my faith.

Another reason that explains what I meant is that Sister Solovi and I usually share messages in peoples' homes. But this time, we tried talking to and sharing short messages to anyone we came across while walking to different homes. And, man, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Every time I opened my mouth to share what I could, I gained a little more confidence and my love for the person listening would lessen the fear. Anyways, we're just so blessed that everyone was nice, because I know not every encounter will be nice and respectful.

In our last district meeting, we had a little pizza party because we reached a district goal. If you don't know, district meetings are once a week with your district to strengthen and train each other to work effectively. That may or may not have been the little push for Sister Solovi and I to try and be a little bolder in the work... But also because everyone deserves to know the truth! Jesus Christ healed a woman on His way to raise someone from the dead! (Matthew 9) So why can't we share a small message or serve someone on the way to a someone else?

Anyways, the meaning of the title... I fell in the river. Don't worry, it was just the lower half of my body, not full submersion. My bag and phone submerged, but they're perfectly fine! That's one miracle out of the many miracles this past week. We got two friends out of it too.

Uarota Sili Muamua Sili 1st Ward had a dance, which was surprising because it's usually Sili Lua Sili 2nd having dances and such. Sili Lua is a very strong Ward. Now I understand the importance of au pa'ia saints gathering together often from the examples of the three Wards here.

We had English Connect the day after (once every week) and I never knew I'd be inspired by English Connect. I've learned lots of new helpful stuff that I wish I knew before the mission! For instance, thinking errors:

Victimization
Pride
Entitlement
Powerlessness
Giving up
Justification
Scarcity mentality
People pleasing
Minimize/catastrophize
Deceit

Thinking errors are mainly caused by looking in towards ourselves. I noticed that these errors keep us from progressing into who the Lord knows we can become as well. No wonder Jesus teaches us to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." And to "love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matthew 22:37, 39) Living those Two Great Commandments cause you to look up towards God and out towards others. It keeps us safe from the thinking errors, or in other words, the lies of Satan, the stopper of our progression towards our Heavenly Father and eternal life.

On Saturday, when we stopped by Sili Tolu Sili 3rd bishop's home to ask who our fafaga was for the day, we were fed a whole meal and a big bowl of ice cream each and then led to where the fafaga was afterward... yeah... I could barely eat the fafaga. Au paia i Sili, faafetai tele lava mo le agalelei ia i maua! Saints in Sili, thank you so much for your kindness to us!

Afterwards, we get home through the pouring rain with one borrowed umbrella from the fafaga and realize that the keys were inside our locked house. 🤦🏽‍♀️ Let's just say that isn't the first time that's happened... We managed to get in after saying a prayer and calling for help. After that incident, I realized that after praying, God didn't fix our problem right away, but He provided comfort, peace, and calm through the storm. We were able to endure our little trial with patience and faith in God.

At Church, we gave a Book of Mormon to a man named Derrick. We met him during one of our bold moments during the week and learned that he's just visiting and staying with family who are members and that he speaks English.

Today, the Sisters in our zone went shopping for our needs in Salelologa. Then we ate at a place called Jet Over. It's by the ocean, so as we were taking photos on the deck, Sister Solovi and I saw a sea turtle! I just saw the head pop up and then go back into the water. It was neat. Alrighty, that's it.

I le suafa o Iesu Keriso, 'amene.

Arohanui & Alofa Atu

- Sister Wihongi