Malo soifua lou susuga! Ou te fiafia lenei pa'ia fa'aSamoa! Hello there everyone! Life is going well and I'm loving the Samoan ward! I apologize, it's been awhile since I've written anything here but there's no need to fear, I will repent and be better at this! :)
These past few weeks have been incredible! About a month ago our Area President, Elder Pearson, came to visit and then last week a member of the Quorum of the 12 apostles came, ELDER BEDNAR! He is my favorite apostle to listen to during General Conference because he is extremely intelligent, but he explains things so simple it's incredible. One thing that we believe in our church that is different from other churches is that there is a living prophet today who speaks the teaching of God and helps guide the people, just like in biblical times. Similarly, we believe that there are also 12 apostles on the earth, again just like Jesus Christ had in the Bible, who help assist the prophet in guiding the world to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ. Elder David A Bednar is one of those 12 apostles! That's like Matthew (from the Bible) coming to visit you and personally guiding you to follow the Savior and help others to do the same.
There was so much I learned from that conference I can't even begin to describe it, nor would I have the time to. I was lucky enough to experience this about a year ago with another member of the 12 apostles, Elder Russel M Nelson. And again almost 17 months ago with Elder Dallin H Oaks. Meeting an apostle and being able to personally visit with him is a once and a life time opportunity and I've had it three times! All were very wise men with very inspirational things to say, which I may share with you in future weeks. But today what I want to share more than anything is the spirit that was felt during each of these experiences. The spirit, also known as the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, testifies of truth and helps us know good from evil. When Elder Bednar walked into the room, the whole room went silent and this incredible feeling of peace overcame me. I'm not usually one to get all emotional with this kind of stuff, but I was almost brought to tears just seeing him and watching him walk to the front of the room. I know that man is a representative of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He testified about how much our Father in Heaven loves us, such a simple topic. But he said it with so much power and sincerity, you could feel it in your heart that it was true. We truly do have a loving Father in Heaven who knows each and every one of us by name. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses. He knows what we need to experience, so we can become the son or daughter of God that he intends us to become. He is there for us, all we need to do is allow Him to help. Let him come into your life and bless. you. If you feel He already is a part of your life, that's great, strengthen that relationship! You can always improve, you can always grow. Go throughout this week looking for opportunities and ways to strengthen that relationship with our Savior and act on them.
I love you all heap! Stay strong and keep moving forward! :)
Elder Macfarlane