The First law of Heaven

Dear Whanau,

    This week we had Zone Conference. It was so inspiring. We talked about the first law of Heaven which is obedience. Everything we do is centred on this important principle. For if we are obedient we will receive the blessings the Lord is already so willing to give us. I was reminded about this video clip we watched at our last Zone Conference about obedience. The girl who was speaking mentioned that the hardest thing we will ever learn in life is obedience but it is the most significant and important one to learn. 
     We had exchanges with the Sister Faana and SIster Sterzeneggar. They are so cute! Sister Faana was from out intake. She is Taheeshian(sp?) SHe is the most happy person I have ever met in my life. She always says don't worry, just be happy! What an inspiration to me!
   We were able to do some service to help this lady the Elders found door knocking. It was so neat we were able to visit with her about our purpose as we pulled weeds and she asked a bit about how we can know we can be with our Families forever when I mentioned we leave our families for 18 months so others can be with their for eternity. 
I love you all! Havea  great week and enjoy conference! Don't forget to go with a question :)
Love,

Sister Sudweeks

To the End of the world and back

Dear Whanau,

    This week was a great week :) We had been told there was a cyclone supposed to hit last week, but if it was a cyclone it was mostly sea fog and wind, nothing much. Oakland had some rain and wind but nothing was damaged. The Lord is looking after us missionaries. We had an exchange this last week with Invercargill. It was great! :) We had lots of missionary moments asking for referrals, and talking with everyone. We even went to Bluff and did some street contacting by Stirlings point, if I remember right I was about 15000 or so kms from New York! Crazy! but London was closer :) Unfortunately the tour bus got their just as we had started door knocking down the way, we missed the heaps of people but we had some good conversations with people about the Gospel.

   Something I have been thinking a lot about is Faith. What does it mean to have real true faith. I loved how someone described faith as a trust in the Lord, in his goodness, love and mercy. Something I have also been realizing how interconnected everything is to faith. In order to use the Atonement we have to have faith, otherwise we won't be able to use it. If we don't have faith that Christ died for us, we won't believe that the conditions meet for us to repent will be enough nor the power of the Atonement to enable us to do things beyond our own capacities and abilities. I think a good way to really show our faith is truly what it says in James 1 how faith without works is dead. If we don't do or act according to our faith in Jesus Christ, we won't be able to do the things He knows we can do with His help. Ether 12 is so inspiring to me. I hope I can have the faith described by Ether and Moroni in this chapter  always and if it ever came to it that I would have the faith to be healed as did the 10 lepers and so many others whom appealed to our Savior when He was  on the Earth.

    We had the 50th anniversary of the Chapel this weekend. It was a wonderful experience and we met many people from all over New Zealand. Elder Thompson of the Seventy came and spoke. He was so inspiring and helped my companion and I come up with ways to help inspire the ward members to do more missionary work.

  I hope you are all having a great week! Keep up the great work! Pray, read the scriptures, and serve others. I know this is The Church of Jesus CHrist of Latter Day Saints, truly we are rich havinbg the gospel, may we always be willing to share that with others.

Love,
Sister Sudweeks

Re: Fwd: picture

sweet

On Sunday, March 16, 2014 7:20 PM, Annemarie Sudweeks <annemarie.sudweeks@myldsmail.net> wrote:

My MTC companion when I saw her at the Missionary Leadership Council in Wellington

Fwd: picture

My MTC companion when I saw her at the Missionary Leadership Council in Wellington

Dear Whanau,

   Buenas dias! Mololele :) Hello! 

This week has been a good week. I went to Christchurch for a South Island training for the Zone Leaders, District Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders. I saw some of the missionaries from my intake, and that was great to say hello. The training was wonderful. It was in anticipation of Presdient and Sister Hudson coming into the mission here in June to replace Sister and President Kezerian. I learned lots of things and we talked about things to focus on to help really prepare for the new mission president coming into the mission. To finish up the meeting we watched an address given by Elder Holland in 2011. It was a wonderful talk and I loved his last remarks. He talked about Peter and how after he had exerted the apostles to throw their nets on the otherside of the ship after his resserction, they were eating fish on the shore he had prepared. As they are sitting there he turns to Peter and asks him "Peter Do you love me more than these" and Peter answered "Ye Lord thou knowest I love thee." Three times this address is given in which the reply is the affirmative, Yeah Lord Thou Knowest I love Thee. What the Lord was asking Peter was do you love me more than these(fish, TV, video games, books, culture,  hobbies, cars, work, etc.) Elder Holland told us that we can never be the same person again. Once we have told the Lord we love him, we have to give it all up. We have to put off those things we put before the Lord and never trun back from his request to feed His sheep. Being a missionary is limited to a period of 18 to 24 months, but being a member missionary is something we will never be released from. I was so touched by this. Once we choose to follow the Lord we need to be willing to ddo all the Lord asks, because then will we find the greatest happiness and peace in our lives and happiness more than we can comprehend.

   I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for all your prayers in my behalf I know they help so much more than you know.

Love yous!

Love,
Sister Sudweeks

  

Have I done any good in the world today? Where am I focused for eternity?

Dear Whanau,

    Good evening! :) I hope you have all had a great week! This week has been a great week of service, we were in gardens pulling out weeds, cleaning out fridges, and packing up boxes. Exciting stuff! Our miracle happened last week. The Elders gave us a referral that wanted us to contact them on Monday, which was why our emails were so early last week. We went and saw her and at first she wasn't home, but we couldn't remember the number so we tried another house, found out it was the first house, and got in the car and as we were driving away we noticed she had just pulled up so we parked and ran over to her house to talk to her. Her partner died a year ago and it was both her partners and daughters birthday. We talked a bit to her and she opened right up and told us she wants to have us teach her 5 year old daughter so she can know where her father went. We are really grateful that Heavenly Father helped us have such a wonderful miracle. We are seeing her again tonight. We can't wait to teach her and her children.

   Something I have been thinking about a lot is the Scripture in 2 Nephi 9:39, that says "Remember to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life eternal." In everything that we do, as we keep this eternal perspective we will never have to worry in life. I was reading hte talk from Febraruy's ensign about 10 steps to happiness in life and I love the last two, go to the temple and live after the manner the Savior does. I know as we do this we can keep that eternal perspective. I was thinking about how we ca keep that perspective two, and I was reminded of the simple commandment to pray and read the scriptures. It is a small thing but has great impacts on the things we do in life.

   One of our members shared with us how she has been praying for service opportunities each day, She is so sweet. She shared some really neat experiences, it was so neat to see the change in her countenance. She was so happy when we saw her. It is so true. That when we are in the service of our fellowmen we are truly in the service of our God.

I love you all!

Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Sudweeks

Re:

wow that is a busy week

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 2:59 PM, Annemarie Sudweeks <annemarie.sudweeks@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Dear Whanau,

    What a week! So much going on this week! It was transfers, so there were the Elders leaving and going, but gratefully, Sister Fetu'u and I didn't have to leave so we were very busy Wednesday with appointments and seeing people. We are just starting to do Rescue nights with our ward as well as splits, it was really great to be able to go out with the branch and see those sisters who are not as active as they could be. I am excited to see them come back./

     We had a wonderful miracle this week! 2 actually. Zheen and Hann the chinese couple texted us on Wednesday or Thursday and asked if we had a book of Mormon. She told us she had been talking to her friend and was explaining to her about our church but seems to have gotten her more confused. So she wanted a Book of Mormon to give her. Sister Fetu'u and I were so excited! It was so cool that she had only been to our church once and already is calling it her church. She was supposed to come to church on Sunday, but we didn't see her. Hopefully we will be able to get ahold of her this week and see what happened.

     The second miracle was we went to Oamaru this week to see the single sisters there. On our way to an appointment we had time to go and see this Sister. Sister Fetu'u had picked her off the potential investigator list. She let us in right then and there and told us she hadn't been baptized yet and would like to be baptized. She is so ready to hear the gospel. We gave her a Book of Mormon and will see her on Wednesday. I am excited to see how her reading went!

Some quotes I loved from the talk by Elder Scott Living a life of peace joy and purpose

"It will be helpful to you to understand and use the power of the interaction of faith and character. God uses your faith to mold your character. Character is woven patiently from threads of doctrine, principle, and obedience. Character is the manifestation of what you are becoming. Your character will be the yardstick that God will use to determine how well you have used your mortal life. Strong moral character results from consistent correct choices in the trials and testing of life. Such choices are made with trust in things that are believed and, when acted upon, will be confirmed as true.

The bedrock of character is integrity. Worthy character will strengthen your capacity to recognize the direction of the Spirit and be obedient to it. Strong character is more important than what you own, what you have learned, or what goals you have accomplished. Your consistent exercise of faith builds strong character. In turn, fortified character expands your ability to exercise faith, thereby enhancing your capacity and confidence in conquering the trials of life. This strengthening cycle continues, for the more your character is fortified, the more capable you are to exercise the power of faith."

It's amazing how through the simple choices we make in life have a huge imapct oun our eternal progresson.

May we awlays act in accordance with our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Love,

Sister Sudweeks

Dear Whanau,

    What a week! So much going on this week! It was transfers, so there were the Elders leaving and going, but gratefully, Sister Fetu'u and I didn't have to leave so we were very busy Wednesday with appointments and seeing people. We are just starting to do Rescue nights with our ward as well as splits, it was really great to be able to go out with the branch and see those sisters who are not as active as they could be. I am excited to see them come back./

     We had a wonderful miracle this week! 2 actually. Zheen and Hann the chinese couple texted us on Wednesday or Thursday and asked if we had a book of Mormon. She told us she had been talking to her friend and was explaining to her about our church but seems to have gotten her more confused. So she wanted a Book of Mormon to give her. Sister Fetu'u and I were so excited! It was so cool that she had only been to our church once and already is calling it her church. She was supposed to come to church on Sunday, but we didn't see her. Hopefully we will be able to get ahold of her this week and see what happened.

     The second miracle was we went to Oamaru this week to see the single sisters there. On our way to an appointment we had time to go and see this Sister. Sister Fetu'u had picked her off the potential investigator list. She let us in right then and there and told us she hadn't been baptized yet and would like to be baptized. She is so ready to hear the gospel. We gave her a Book of Mormon and will see her on Wednesday. I am excited to see how her reading went!

Some quotes I loved from the talk by Elder Scott Living a life of peace joy and purpose

"It will be helpful to you to understand and use the power of the interaction of faith and character. God uses your faith to mold your character. Character is woven patiently from threads of doctrine, principle, and obedience. Character is the manifestation of what you are becoming. Your character will be the yardstick that God will use to determine how well you have used your mortal life. Strong moral character results from consistent correct choices in the trials and testing of life. Such choices are made with trust in things that are believed and, when acted upon, will be confirmed as true.

The bedrock of character is integrity. Worthy character will strengthen your capacity to recognize the direction of the Spirit and be obedient to it. Strong character is more important than what you own, what you have learned, or what goals you have accomplished. Your consistent exercise of faith builds strong character. In turn, fortified character expands your ability to exercise faith, thereby enhancing your capacity and confidence in conquering the trials of life. This strengthening cycle continues, for the more your character is fortified, the more capable you are to exercise the power of faith."

It's amazing how through the simple choices we make in life have a huge imapct oun our eternal progresson.

May we awlays act in accordance with our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Love,

Sister Sudweeks