Howdy. Well
everything here is going dandy, other then our internet. The internet
here takes about 50 years to do anything. But other then that I am doing
dandy.
We had a tsunami warning this week but it ended up being just
some waves that weren't big enough to be called tsunamis. SO that was
fun. This week we spent a lot of time out tracting because there's not many investigators in our area. We cover a ward (Leone 3rd) and a branch
(Amanave) and we have the biggest area in American Samoa.
Cool story
that a happened this week: when I got called to this area I heard that
the work here was pretty dead because of one of the Chiefs or Matai of
the village. This Matai doesn't like the church so she (yeah its a girl Matai) is making it very hard for the church to grow in that area.
This
last Monday we got a call from a lady who said that she had a family
member who she wanted us to meet with. We set up a time to go with her
to meet her family member. She and her sister came and picked up my comp
and I and took us to the other side of our area (about a 45 minute
drive).
While we were driving they told us about the lady we were going
to visit. They said that she was one of the high talking chiefs of
Amanave, her name is Taua and she had agreed to meet with the
missionaries but they weren't too sure if she would actually like to
listen to us of just Bible bash. Samoans love Bible bashing.
As I asked
more questions about this lady I realized that the lady we where going
to visit was the Matai that had been giving the church a hard time for
the past few years. I started praying like crazy as soon as I realized
that.
When we met her she seemed like a pretty nice lady. We entered
her house and we started to talk with her and get to know her. She holds
a high calling in her church and she works for her church as well. She
is one of the highest Chiefs in the village. We told her that we had a
message that we would like to share with her and we asked if we could
start with a prayer. We said a prayer and asked for the spirit to be
with us.
After the prayer we taught her about the restoration of the
gospel through Joseph Smith. She listened very carefully and asked a few
questions. When we were almost done I asked if she had any questions
and she said "I don't know, I'm starting to doubt my church. Are you
saying that my church isn't true?" ...
We told her that all churches have some truth but the only
church that has the entire truth is the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints. Then we invited her to be baptized. She said that it
would be hard for her because she had such a solid foundation in her
church, but she said to give her a bit of time to find out for herself,
through prayer, if this was right. It was amazing to see the spirit work
in her and help her see the truth of this gospel. We are going back to
visit her again this saturday to follow up on the invite to be baptized. If you all could keep her in your prayers then that would be awesome.
I
love you all and I will write again next week. Sorry if I don't always
reply to all of you, this internet is so slow. It takes me about 5
minutes to open up an email. But I love reading all your emails so
please keep sending them!
Thanks for the prayers,
-Elder Lamoreaux
Grandma Lamoreaux sent this parable to Jace after reading this email:
The Parable of Two Lamps
"Among
the material things of the past—things that I treasure for sweet
memory’s sake and because of pleasant association in bygone days—is a
lamp. …
The
lamp of which I speak, the student lamp of my school and college days,
was one of the best of its kind. I had bought it with hard-earned
savings; it was counted among my most cherished possessions. …
One
summer evening I sat musing studiously and withal restfully in the open
air outside the door of the room in which I lodged and studied. A
stranger approached. I noticed that he carried a satchel. He was affable
and entertaining. I brought another chair from within, and we chatted
together till the twilight had deepened into dusk, the dusk into
darkness.
Then
he said: “You are a student and doubtless have much work to do of
nights. What kind of lamp do you use?” And without waiting for a reply,
he continued, “I have a superior kind of lamp I should like to show you,
a lamp designed and constructed according to the latest achievements of
applied science, far surpassing anything heretofore produced as a means
of artificial lighting.”
I
replied with confidence, and I confess, not without some exultation:
“My friend, I have a lamp, one that has been tested and proved. It has
been to me a companion through many a long night. It is an Argand lamp,
and one of the best. I have trimmed and cleaned it today; it is ready
for the lighting. Step inside; I will show you my lamp; then you may
tell me whether yours can possibly be better.”
We
entered my study room, and with a feeling which I assume is akin to
that of the athlete about to enter a contest with one whom he regards as
a pitiably inferior opponent, I put the match to my well-trimmed
Argand.
My
visitor was voluble in his praise. It was the best lamp of its kind, he
said. He averred that he had never seen a lamp in better trim. He
turned the wick up and down and pronounced the adjustment perfect. He
declared that never before had he realized how satisfactory a student
lamp could be.
I
liked the man; he seemed to me wise, and he assuredly was ingratiating.
“Love me, love my lamp,” I thought, mentally paraphrasing a common
expression of the period.
“Now,”
said he, “with your permission I’ll light my lamp.” He took from his
satchel a lamp then known as the “Rochester.” It had a chimney which,
compared with mine, was as a factory smokestack alongside a house flue.
Its hollow wick was wide enough to admit my four fingers. Its light made
bright the remotest corner of my room. In its brilliant blaze my own
little Argand wick burned a weak, pale yellow. Until that moment of
convincing demonstration, I had never known the dim obscurity in which I
had lived and labored, studied and struggled.
“I’ll
buy your lamp,” said I; “you need neither explain nor argue further.” I
took my new acquisition to the laboratory that same night and
determined its capacity. It turned at over 48 candlepower—fully four
times the intensity of my student lamp.
Two
days after purchasing, I met the lamp peddler on the street about
noontime. To my inquiry he replied that business was good; the demand
for his lamps was greater than the factory supply. “But,” said I, “you
are not working today?” His rejoinder was a lesson. “Do you think that I
would be so foolish as to go around trying to sell lamps in the
daytime? Would you have bought one if I had lighted it for you when the
sun was shining? I chose the time to show the superiority of my lamp
over yours, and you were eager to own the better one I offered, were you
not?”
Such is the story. Now consider the application of a part, a very small part, thereof.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” [Matt. 5:16].
The
man who would sell me a lamp did not disparage mine. He placed his
greater light alongside my feebler flame, and I hasted to obtain the
better.
The
missionary servants of the Church of Jesus Christ today are sent forth,
not to assail or ridicule the beliefs of men, but to set before the
world a superior light, by which the smoky dimness of the flickering
flames of man-made creeds shall be apparent. The work of the Church is
constructive, not destructive.""
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