Seeing Others As They May Become

Hello Stalwart and Mighty Family!

That's an awesome success story Dad, an Ammon like missionary experience! I am convinced that as we continue to share our success stories of reactivation, of blessings and our testimonies we will have a greater desire to go out and do missionary work!

Stand Ye In Holy Places

Sounds like y'all had a great week! Mekelee it is good to hear you are still keeping active as well as doing good in school! Ry it's also good to hear of your continued success and what it's gonna be like at the next level. Certainly the Lord is blessings us just as He promised all of us He would if we bear our trials patiently; He will reward us 100 fold.

What a GREAT week this has been here in the Fayetteville Zone. Miraculous things are happening as we continue to search and rescue those that our Heavenly Father has prepared for us. This week with the Lord's help we experienced an amazing accomplishment as a zone nearly tripling the goal set for new investigators. We really have Ammon and Amulek type missionaries in our zone, their diligence and obedience is truly humbling.

Thursday we were able to go to the temple here in Atlanta to start off our Zone Leader Council. The temple was a uplifting experience, a chance to get away from everything around us and seek counsel and revelation from the Lord as to how to better ourselves and those we have stewardship for and work within our zones. I am definitely grateful for temples and how it helps us to replenish our armor to fight against the world. I am also grateful for a temple back home that is so close even within walking distance.

We are looking forward to Zone Training this week in which Elder Price and I will be conducting and training our missionaries. President Harding will be presiding at the meeting. I have really learned some great leadership skills from President not only for the mission, but life in general -- helping with the little things that make a deep impression and lasting impact for those we help and serve.

The thoughts that have come to my mind recently have been of the Book of Mormon. I will be finshing it again for the 2nd time since I have been out here and I have learned even more this time! haha It's so true that we can always get something new out of the Book of Mormon -- I LOVE IT! I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the ONLY way we can prosper in the land. It is the ONLY way that we can be saved from the worst human condition -- sin, spiritual death. It is the ONLY WAY, THERE IS NO OTHER WAY!

I love all y'all and pray for you each day.

Love Elder Gautavai

There Was No Other Good Enough

Hey Y'all,

This week has been just an INCREDIBLE week!! A big reason is Elder Corbridge of the first Quorum of the Seventy being here in the mission. We attended a stake leadership meeting with him as well as Zone Conference where he helped us with our teaching and also discussed the 4TH MISSIONARY, the article he wrote. The main message that I took out of his counsel is the Atonement MUST BE THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING WE TEACH and how the people need to understand that if the Book of Mormon is true THEN the Atonement is for us; and that we can be forgiven of our sins, endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost and thus be qualified for eternal life.

Elder Price and I were so excited to go out and apply this to our area and in our teaching, AND in 3 days we picked up 6 new investigators and have a total of 9 investigators at this time! I have a testimony that when people understand what the FIRST VISION really means to them and why they should join the church..their desires and excitement to read the Book of Mormon will shoot through the roof!

This week we will be heading to the Atlanta temple for Zone Leader Council. I am so excited to go to the temple with the many stalwart zone leaders and our mighty Captain, President Harding (our Captain Moroni) to COUNSEL WITH THE LORD as how to best help the mighty missionaries we preside over in our zone (I learned that "preside or presiding" means we are RESPONSIBLE FOR THE OUTCOME).

I'm doing very well and I am glad to hear y'all are doing great also. I imagine with coach Mendenhall and the BYU coaches coming over to the house all y'all will be doing some deep cleaning haha. 

Let me share a real awesome experience. A couple of days ago we felt impressed to ask a young less active couple if we could teach them the plan of salvation as they are getting ready to welcome a child of our Heavenly Father into the world and their home. They replied that they were busy. We told them that WE LOVE THEM and if they needed any help that we were there for them, that we thought the world of 'em. Two days later the wife's non-member father passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack. Sunday the Husband came to church alone and I went over and sat next to him and put my arms around him and just told him I LOVED HIM and that I thought he was awesome! He arose and bore powerful testimony of missionary work and pleaded with the ward to not let a moment slip by to share the gospel with someone because we never know when we won't have that chance to share it and that person has to wait to hear it in the Spirit World. 

That caused me to ponder and feel the spirit so powerfully that I got up and bore my testimony of the Atonement and how this life is all about the Atonement and relying on our loving Heavenly Father. It has caused me to be recommitted  as I hope it will recommit y'all to SHARE the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those around y'all for it is the ONLY WAY to receive peace and happiness and again qualify us for eternal life.

Love Elder Gautavai

Our Savior's Love Shines Like The Sun With Perfect Light

Hello Family,

Thanksgiving went well! As part of inspired revelation from President Harding, Thanksgiving was a day in which we were asked to set up appointments with all members no matter what their status to share a message to leave a blessing of the Savior's LOVE and PEACE in their homes as part of our sacred calling. We also asked them Who They Knew who could use the same blessing. It was awesome to be able to continue to gain the members trust and see the enthusiasm for the Work. haha Our dinner calendar is pretty much full next month as the members have signed up and are going to bring friends of other faiths to the dinners. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with the Singleton family at the church building along with their extended family. It was fun getting to know each and everyone of them. Nothing out of the ordinary was made for our Thanksgiving meal, pretty much the norm. Ben took us to this place for crawfish unfortunately, they ran out so I didn't get any haha...we will be going back for a big table of crawfish for sure!

This week has been good in determining a balance in our stewardship between attention to our zone and our own area. I was able to go on exchanges this week and help a struggling area within our zone pick-up some new investigators simply by providing a blessing to everyone we came in contact with. As I took the lead, the Elder I was with got really stoked seeing how blessings' of the Savior's love and peace really help people recognize and acknowledge us as representatives of Jesus Christ!

Now here is some fun news we call the "EVERY SOUL FIND A SOUL." Every missionary in our zone and in the mission will find one person (2 per companionship) and bring them into the waters of baptism by Dec 31st. I know we can do it! We are so excited to get out and find those who our Heavenly Father has prepared! We are placing no limits on the Lord! I'm getting pumped up just writing this to all ya'll! 

President Harding and the Assistants one of them being my trainer Elder Morrill (ZL companion in East Point with Elder Fruean) have been in daily contact with us and I have really learned alot from President in all aspects of missionary work and in life. We looked and are using LEAD and LAG indicators to help us achieve EVERY SOUL FIND A SOUL to determine where we need to focus on to bring all that our Heavenly Father has asked.

This next week will BE an exciting week! Elder Corbridge of the Seventy will be training Elder Price and I along with the Stake President on leadership in the Stake on Wed. We will also meet with him on Friday at Zone Confrence as well as another leadership training. It will BE a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow.

I bear witness that this is an inspired work, that the Lord is hastening His work until the gospel has reached every heart on this earth. I know that everything we do in life is centered around the Doctrine of Christ that as we partake of the Doctrine of Christ we are accessing the fullness of the Atonement.

I'm blessed to hear that ya'll are doing well! Very thankful for ya'll and all ya'lls prayers. May the Lord continue to bless all ya'll and may we find ways to help this work go forward!

Love Elder Gautavai

Sr Zone Leader - a_RISE UP! and SHINE, Shout!

Hello Family,

Our Heavenly Father is good and the love He freely gives is beyond comprehension. He is aware of our concerns and challenges we all face. Through His only begotten son Jesus Christ the Savior and Redeemer of the world He enables us to bear our trials and tribulations with patience; and as we bear it with patience the Lord in His timing will bless us a hundred fold! The news of Rylee's scholarship offer was relayed to me by dear brother Patrick haha over our dinner. The feeling of joy that came with the announcement was one filled with peace that our Heavenly Father had answered our prayers showing His tender mercy and love for us. I'm looking forward to getting season tickets for 2015-2016 BYU fall football season!

This week has been a good week. I am still in Sharpsburg and am excited to continue to find and bless those the Lord has prepared here in our area. My new companion is Elder Price who came out with me from the MTC. Elder Price was in my district and housing although we were not companions in the MTC. He was someone I hoped I would get the opportunity to serve with in the field, and now we have the chance to serve together. He is from Kingston Utah, and loves to work hard which is great. He likes to run in the mornings so I guess it's time I start running too. I look at it as another plus, health-wise :)

After a few changes in leadership and missionary departures with transfers, elder Price and I have been planning a lot on how we are going to use our time wisely, serving with greater love and urgency, and adjusting to being on the phone in what seems like all hours of the day haha. Our greatest desire is to get to everyone Heavenly Father wants us to reach and to BE the standard here in the Sharpsburg area. We are so excited for this transfer! The ward too is excited and pumped up about missionary work making it even more thrilling.

Elder Corbridge of the Seventy will be here holding Zone Conference as well as leadership training, which will be a very neat experience. I am definitely looking forward to hearing from him regarding his gospel message and gaining insight to his article, "4th missionary", a talk I constantly read and study each day. We also have the opportunity to go to the temple in the next couple of weeks as part of our Zone leadership council -- I am very excited for this. It seems like forever since I' ve been able to go to the temple.

Yesterday, P. was able to confer the Aaronic priesthood to B.S. which was an incredible experience to be apart of. P. is a fantastic missionary and is truly one who has partaken of the Atonement. We were able to give them both the new member lessons on the Plan of Salvation last night and invited them to pray about someone who like them they could invite to partake of the fullness of Gospel and the Atonement.

I bear witness to what Dad testified of, that our Heavenly Father IS GOOD, that He has extended His love and has revealed His gospel to His children through a latter-day prophet, and that we can have a knowledge of this truth through the Book of Mormon.

Continuing to Pray for your Success and Strength!

Love Elder Gautavai

My Lord Will Have Need of Me

(the elder was informed of his younger brother's team' success over the weekend winning their third straight league title in a 7-6 win on a cold, snowy Saturday. The elder spent a lot time before the mission with his brother working on his receiving and route running)

Hello Family!!

Mekelee Boy!! thas' what I'm talking about congratulations on your 3-peat so good to hear you took it to them!! The pictures are awesome they remind me of last year's final!! You'll have to send my "hello" to Isaac Parry, my man looking good in the photo! haha

This has been a really great week! Elder Cotton-Betteridge and I wanted to really continue to go all out with transfers coming up and the uncertainty of what might happen. We tore it up as we pinned our ears back and went to work here in the Sharpsburg Area. As we tried to talk with everyone and using every opportunity to find-teach-and-bless others, we have seen miraculous things happen. We found a grip load of investigators and were able to get them as well as a lot of less active members to church.

With that said I will be staying here in Sharpsburg for another 6 weeks. Sadly, my companion will be getting transferred so I will be getting a new companion Wednesday. With any change, we know the Lord is in charge and we are confident that He needs us where we are assigned. I'm so excited and its been nice to see the Sharpsburg area change from when I first arrived here to now, and the growth in people to teach as well as the saints and their enthusiasm for missionary work. As an example, we have been able to get a team-up everyday this week, which was pleasant. I'm looking forward to continuing and accomplishing the work the Lord has asked me to do here in Sharpsburg.

The Atonement is central to everything we teach and I have really tried to rely on the Spirit this week to perceive how a particular individual needs the Atonement in their lives. I've almost completed the Book of Mormon again as a challenge given by President Harding earlier this transfer and I have felt the Atonement more abundantly in my life as I've read the Book of Mormon. I have also been reading the New Testament of which I have gained a deeper appreciation for. The Bible with the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel.

I'm doing well and looking forward to another great week of missionary work! Praying for all ya'lls success and safety always.

Till next week,

Love Elder Gautavai

God Loves Us, He Always Has, He Always Will

Hello Family!!

Ry and Jr very proud of ya'll and the hard work and dedication ya'll have put in for the last 4 years at Bountiful High school.  It is my firm belief that YOU'VE WON something more than a state title could mean. Just take a look back and find the blessings that have come as you have been valiant young men and priesthood holders. When you do, you'll see what I mean.

Mekelee!! That's what I'm talkin' about!!  You can play with anyone, anywhere you just need to mentally have confidence!! Have fun and leave it all out on the field this week -- you can do it, be strong and be positive! Nice costume by the way!!;)

This week has been another good week of MIGHTY MISSIONARY service. We have been able to have fun and BE creative in our FINDING thanks to some inspirational counsel from Brother Watson of the Church Missionary Committee at our leadership training last Wednesday. I feel more confident talking to people, anytime and anywhere about the message we have been called to share and of its importance. We added a few more investigators and families to our teaching pool and are continuing to work hard and being effective in bringing others to the GATE; knowing it is the ONLY WAY to dwell in the presence of God with our families. I have also been studying a lot of the Gospels in the New Testament and seeing the beauty of the Savior's life -- it is incredible!! Jesus Christ has so much love for us while being meek and humble in every step he took.

Transfers will be coming up on the 14th (next wednesday). I will know by next email what if anything will occur. I love you all, and thank you for your prayers and messages that you share with me each week. I miss all of you but know that this is where I need to be at this time in my life.

Till next week,

Love, Elder Gautavai

Sitting On A Gold Mine For Missionary Work

Hello Family!!!

WOW!!! this has been a very amazing week!! Where to begin....Monday President Harding gave us a call and we went on team-ups with him that night visitng a recent convert who is battling an illness and and some other people. Such a neat experience spreading and testifying of the fullness of the gospel being restored to the earth with President Harding. Like Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah type of stuff or, Helaman and the 2,060 strippling warriors; it was incredible! Tuesday we were on exchanges and learned alot from Elder McCray -- pictured in one of the photos I sent -- on how I can be more effective in studying the Bible. Wednsday I went with Elder McCray to a Leadership meeting where brother Watson who is part of the missionary department and was on the committee that put together Preach My Gospel showed us how we can use Preach My Gospel the way it was intended, and to help us in the Finding aspect of missionary work. He explained that Elder Gonzalez and he were in Atlanta for only an hour and were impressed to say we are "sitting on a GOLD MINE for missionary work."

But this exciting week got even more so as we were able to help B. make his first covenant with Heavenly Father on Saturday morning. P. was one of the speakers and did an amazing job testifying of Baptism and how there is no other feeling like it in the world. We had another recent convert speak as well who did an incredible job. B. was confirmed a member of the church Sunday and recieved the gift Holy Ghost. B. is 20 years old and was introduced to the church by an ex-girlfriend. His family told him the night before that if he went through with getting baptized he would no longer be welcomed or could take part in family functions. But he said he knows the gospel and church are true, that the feelings he has are real and that things that have happened to him are for a reason, that if people would only listen and see for themselves they would know the truthfullness of the message as well. I will tell you more about him in upcoming letters.

 

The game was soo saweet!!! There were about 70 missionaries at the game. We were seated up in the top-right section below us were the Tech students. We arrived about 2 hours before just talk to EVERYONE and have normal conversations to show that we were normal. haha It was Tech's homecoming game so it was a bit crazy. It kinda felt like being one of the MIGHTY WARRIORS in the Book of Mormon walking amongst so much troubles. haha Random people would walk into our section and take a mass photo of us missionaries and even the Tech student section took pictures from below. haha BYU had great support not only from us but on the opposite side which appeared to have nothing but BYU fans.

We got a chance to meet some of the players after the game. They said that they saw us up in the stands and really wanted to play harder and win for the elders. After the game they came over and started fist pumpin and waving at us including Bronco himself haha. I was able to talk  to Riley Nelson, Uona Kaveniga, and Manoa Pikula who all had nothing but love and respect for the family and especially Rylee. I saw coach Kaufusi but didn't get a chance to flag him down oh well..

I love you all so much! Good luck this week with the playoff runs!! Happy to see y'all put Skyline away in neat fashion. haha Continue to be leaders in preparation and execution and take care of the Mustangs!! Kelee boi glad to hear you're doing well. BE strong and BE a leader as well give all you got and y'all MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Love Elder Gautavai