Elder Matua: A spiritual approach to conflict resolution

It was such a good week. Super long. But super good. I say it was long....but I still feel like I got dropped off yesterday hahah. And here i am, on day 20. INSANE.

Dang Fijians dad! I'm super sad King and I won't be joining you this coming February for the USA Sevens in Las Vegas! Go Manu Samoa! haha

The MTC is still awesome. I have never felt the spirit so constantly. I Love it.

I'm not sure if i wrote you guys about last Thursday night. We were practicing teaching the Plan of Salvation. It is such a great lesson. As i was sitting there thinking about how I have felt the love of God before in my life, the first thing that popped into my mind was my family - especially you mom and dad. I sat there and thought about you guys and the spirit rushed into my heart like I've never felt it before. It was truly incredible. As soon as I started thinking about you guys, it felt as if my whole world had suddenly stopped...literally; and it was as if Heavenly Father himself had come down and gave me a massive hug. And I felt as if He was talking to me. Not with words..but through feelings in my heart. It was so overwhelming. I have felt the spirit super strong before... but not in this way. Dad and Mom, it was amazing!

I had another special experience on Friday night as well. I still have another week as district leader, and I love how the Lord has blessed me with being able to feel the love for each of his children, especially those in my district and in my zone. The relationships I have formed are awesome.

Elder D, one of the Elders in my room, has sort of been acting like he isn't focused that well. Lately everybody has been trying to figure out how to help him. Our branch presidency, zone leaders, and I have met several times trying to figure out how we can help this Elder. He just goofs off way too much and really doesn't have the missionary mentality yet.

Friday night he was really mad at the zone leaders for some reason. So the zone leaders (Elder W and Elder S, my two really good friends here) pulled me into the room to talk about ways to help him. After only 5 minutes, Elder W. asked me if I think we should just pull him in and talk about it with him in the room. I had an instant impression that it was what we should do. So the three of us walked over to my classroom and they asked me if i would pull him out.

I opened the door, slipped my head in and said, "Elder D, would you step out here with us real quick?"

without hesitation he said no. It took my three tries until he gave in. I paused for a second...let the spirit enter the room and tried my hardest to get his attention. I said, "Elder D, I'm doing this because I love you...please come with me." I'm not gonna lie, my eyes were watering at this point.
He followed us to the room we were previously meeting in.

Elder W asked me to say a prayer and I begged Heavenly Father for the spirit to guide all four of us.
We talked it over; cleared all of the contention in the room and the three of us just tried our hardest to express our love for him.

There was a pause before Elder D said anything. Then he said, "The one thing i was afraid of leaving was my boys at home. I just have sisters, so my homies meant everything. I asked the Lord to help me as I leave my boys at home... and he blessed me with you Matua."

It was an absolutely amazing experience. His countenance changed and he was happy.

Later that night, he was sitting at his desk in the sushe. I went to give him a hug and he told me how all day long he was so frustrated with the zone leaders. He was frustrated with everybody. He told me how he was reading all day long in the scriptures, stories about people meeting Christ. He said he was praying to Heavenly Father that he would be able to meet Jesus Christ, and then I walked into the room for our meeting and as soon as the three of us took him into the other room, he knew it wasn't only us four in the room. He realized God answered his prayers and he was introduced to the love of Christ.

I love and miss you guys! What a good week. I hope you all are doing well. Grandma's cabin looks way sweet!

Love you fam.
Elder Matua
Ma Zhang Lao.
(Ma = Horse, Zhang Lao = Elder:)

PS - Chad Lewis (BYU) spoke at the devotional last night. It was SO sweet, he served in Taiwan!