"Im not palagi, youre palagi"

Holy driving! Man, we went up to Sydney twice this week and I'm absolutely smashed. Driving that much really makes you tired. (thanks Mom for being a taxi driver while we were growing up!!) Well despite the long drives, the trips were a lot of fun! The first one was MLC. We had a really good meeting. President gave a training on sacrifice and helping people understand what sacrifice actually is. Sometimes people will sacrifice things like their bed until they get a baptism or other things like that, and President basically told us to chill. hahaha. It was a really good training though and he taught us a little more about the meaning of sacrifice. 

Sister Runia gave a great training about faith in Christ, not faith in outcomes. That was some hardcore wisdom right there. Its sometimes hard to find the difference. A lot of people will say (including myself all the time) "I have faith that _____ will happen" when really your faith should be in the Lord and His ability to make that happen so long as it is His will. It was a really great training. 

After MLC we had trade offs with the AP's. That was a ton of fun!!! We were able to work hard and have a good time. It was so cool! We made a goal to teach several lessons that night, and then we headed onto the street. Literally the first guy we talked to was like "yeah I have time right now, what do you have?" So we taught him right then! SO cool! I love street contacting. ahhaha

Coming back from Sydney, we helped Bishop move. That was a crack up!!! So he has like 4 sons, and they all speak Samoan. One of them, during the middle of the service was like "Hey palagi!" (white boy) To which I responded, "youre palagi" He said "I'm not palagi, youre palagi!!" Thus i was stuck in a battle with a 7 year old samoan kid. hahahaha. It was pretty funny. Such a fun family! 

Well, Mike got baptized this week!!!!! I taught him in Sydney, so we headed up on Saturday for that! It was really cool to see him again and everyone else. Crazy though! We got to the chapel at 4:30pm for the 5pm baptism. The font (which takes 2-3 hours to fill up) hadn't even started yet. So everyone grabbed buckets and filled them up in sinks to speed up the filling process. The baptism that followed also made it a more memorable one. It was really great! 

Well everyone, I hope you're having a great Christmas and that you're able to remember its true meaning. Christ came for each one of us so that we could come to Him and be saved. I love Him and I'm trying to learn more about Him. This Christmas, I invite you to give yourself the best gift ever, and do the same; learn of Christ. Love you all heaps!! Merry Christmas!!!! 

Elder Maxfield 

The baptism