Re:

Dear Whanua and Friends,

 Happy November! :) Thanks giving will be coming up soon! How exciting! :D What is everyone's plans for that? Doing anything fun? This week has been a great week, and has gone so fast. Really I don't know where the time is going. Somethings from this week: We do service for the people we live above each week and I absolutely love it! It is the best ever! We help out with this program where children with disabilities come after school and hang out. So we have been going there and just talking with them and playing some games or shooting hoops, giving them more people to interact with. IT has been so great. I really love those kids. They truly are so close to our HEavenly Father. One of the boys is named Mason and he always says my name which is so cute. and asks how I am doing 

   One of the elders shared this thought with us about the missionary age change, someone mentioned how there hasn't been a huge increase in baptisms, and the missionary who was in the room mentioned how someone said, that may be so but the Lord is preparing His army. How true that is. We are all being prepared for that final conflict, may we all be ready when that day comes and know who's side of the line we are on. From Preach my Gospel chapter 7 comes this quote Choosing the Lord's side "will bless you during your mission and throughout your life. Learning [the Lord's way] will enable you to help build the Lord's kingdom in additional ways and will be a blessing for you and your family... Strive to master the [talents and ablities God has given you] throughout your mission and after you return. The Lord has invested much in you, and He may have uses for your language abilities later in your life."

  Something I love about this Church is that no matter where you go there is always this unity. I have been in a lot of different wards and branches throughout my mission and no matter what I always feel God's love there and the love of those who attend. Truly we are more alike than we are different.

   We had our primary presentation this week. It was so good and so cute. One of my favorite songs they sang is "The Family is of God" one of the lines goes  "God gave us families. to help us become what we want to be." How grateful I am for my family.

   This week we found two potential investigators! How exciting! Two people who want us to come back and share with them how they can be happier in this life, know why they are here and where they can go in life. I truly hope they will let us come back and share our message with them.

    this week I have been thinking a lot about the importance of thinking about where our treasures lie. What do we spend our time doing? Do we value and make time more for the things of God or the things of the world? In Mormon 8, Moroni focuses so much on this and how important it is we remember that eternally the things of God will bring us more happiness than anything else.
Elder Teh from his talk Where your treasure is says "In times of calamity or tragedy, the Lord has a way of refocusing us and our priorities. All of a sudden, all the material things we worked so hard to acquire do not matter."

  I know that it is better to spend our time on the things that really matter most rather than spending it accumulating material things adn spending our time on things that waste out time rather than build family relationships and our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Sudweeks

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 10:51 AM, Annemarie Sudweeks <annemarie.sudweeks@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Dear Whanau,

    Wow! What a week! Lots of things happening and amazing miracles! The Lord truly blesses us so much as we strive to do his will. This week, my companion and I have been doing a lot of walking. It has been awesome! :D We now have legs of the top most quality steel! :D We have been contacting lots of the Members and door knocking. We have a zone goal to help 15 people make the sacred covenant of baptism with our Heavenly Father. We know as we work hard Heavenly Father will place someone who is prepared in our path and we will be able to help them.

   Besides that, we had a Halloween activity as a ward-- a trunk or treat. That was fun, my first time really celebrating Halloween on the mission. We found three potential investigators yesterday door knocking. Fasting and prayer really work. I have such a testimony of this eternal gospel principle.

    I loved what Sister Sudweeks said last week about our attitude. Truly what we decide to feel about something and how we see our current circumstances all depends on us. We can either be happy about something or upset but we get to be the ones to choose. I think that is why Heavenly Father has asked us all to always be grateful and show gratitude. It is through being grateful that we are able to feel happy despite what my be occurring. We still may not like the circumstances, but are capacity and ability to handle it increases.

    I loved this quote by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, "To consecrate is to set apart or dedicate something as sacred, devoted to Holy Purposes. True success in this life comes in consecrating our lives-- that is our time and choices to God's purposes. In so doing we permit Him to raise us to out highest Destiny." How true this is. When we consecrate our lives to God, our Heavenly Father we are changed into the being and person He sees us in us the potential we can be.

    I love you all so much! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and going to church! I know you will receive the strength and guidance you need in life through these sacred ways we consecrate our lives to God.

   Arohanui,
Sister Sudweeks