The dog that lead to a baptism

Elder Tevita Vimahi has been doing well.  They have been working as often as weather permits and doing a lot of walking.  He says he has been working at being more disciplined and forcing himself to do things he might normally hesitate doing.  As an example of this, he told us about an evening this past week when they decided to call former contacts.  These are phone numbers previous missionaries had left of people they reached out to before.  Sometimes on these contacts is a bit of background information.  On one contact Elder Vimahi noticed the background information said the gentleman was Jewish.  He thought to himself that a Jewish man probably wouldn’t be interested in hearing about the gospel and planned to just set the name aside.  But, remembering his goal to do things that he hesitates doing, he decided to call anyway.  When he called, a man picked up and said, “Hello!”  Elder Vimahi was a little surprised at the joy that seemed to come from the man’s voice.

“Hi!  It’s the missionaries, how are you?” Vita asked.

“It is by the grace of Heavenly Father that you called me tonight!” the man replied.

“Really?  Why is that?” Elder Vimahi asked.

“I’ll get to that in a minute” the man said, then asked Elder Vimahi to introduce himself.  The man knew they were the missionaries but also knew they weren’t the same ones he had met before.  After introductions were made, the man said, “The veterinarian just left here and had to put my dog down after I’ve had her for 15 years.  She’s wrapped up in her blanket with all her toys on the back deck and I can’t dig a hole to bury her because the ground is frozen” the man cried.  Elder Vimahi explained to us that this man did not have any children or a spouse.  He had three dogs whom he treated like his children and this particular dog had been his service dog for the last 15 years since he was discharged from the military. 

Elder Vimahi said, “Oh man!  We’ll come over right now and help you bury her.”

“What?  Really?” The man was in disbelief. “But it’s dark outside already.”

“That’s ok.  We’ll come right over.  We can be there in 5 minutes” Elder Vimahi assured him.

The man was grateful and agreed to have the missionaries come over.  When they arrived they spent a good amount of time talking to the man, getting to know him and just keeping him company.  The man's name is Ellie.  By the time they were done talking it was late, so Elder Vimahi and his companion told him they’d return the following day to help dig a grave for his dog, whom Ellie called his "child".  

The next day the missionaries went back.  People had dropped off a pick axe and shovel to Ellie.  Elder Vimahi and his companion dug the hole in 45 minutes and that was perfect because they could only really do an hour of service that day.  Ellie was impressed at their speed.  Elder Vimahi had remarked to me that being outdoors and working was his element so he didn’t mind it at all despite the cold.  Before they left, Ellie asked if they could help him lay his girl down.  They did, and knelt down, right there in the mud and said a prayer with him for his dog.  They’ve been busy with Ellie a lot lately and he’s been learning a lot from their lessons.  Elder Vimahi mentioned that Ellie had even bought them dinner.  Ellie has guitars hanging everywhere in his home, which is also part of Elder Vimahi’s “element”.  Vita played on his electric guitar and sent a video.  

As it turns out, Ellie also has a studio in his house so I’m sure Ellie and Vita find plenty to talk about with music and with other subjects they have in common.  Ellie has a hard time walking and never leaves the house so he kinda stays to himself.  He doesn’t let anyone park in the driveway but he lets the missionaries do so because they are his “brothers” as he calls them, and wants everyone else to know that they are like his family and that’s why they get to park in the driveway.  During one of their visits Ellie commented that Heavenly Father told him this was going to be a great year.  Elder Vimahi has, as you know, become more bold and replied, "Yeah, it's the year you're going to get baptized!"

This evening Elder Vimahi sent us a picture of their friend Ellie.  They taught Ellie a lesson tonight and asked him to get on his knees and pray to know if Heavenly Father wanted Ellie to be baptized.  Ellie prayed and guess what?  Ellie chose to be baptized!  He set his baptism date for February 18th.  Isn’t it amazing what can come from listening to that little nudge that says, “just do it”. 💙🙏

Elder Vimahi also spoke about feeling kind of down last week.  They had been having a hard time with rejections and he was feeling discouraged.  He told his companion they needed to sit down somewhere so he could think.  He said a little prayer in his heart and soon after received a phone call.  It was the APs (assistants to the mission president) who were calling because they were at Elder Vimahi’s apartment.  Elder Vimahi had forgotten they were scheduled to go on exchanges that day.  He gave the APs their location and were promptly picked up.  Elder Vimahi told them they were an answer to his prayer.  He was needing a little “pick me up” or a “reset” to get his mind focused and help lift his spirits.  He spent the day with Elder Wendleschafer and asked lots of questions.  Elder Wendelschafer was patient, encouraging and helped open Elder Vimahi’s eyes to see himself from a different perspective.  He referenced something called the missionary transformation letter and gave Vita the second C end he was needing that day.

One of the last stories Elder Vimahi shared with us was about a little girl who they are teaching.  Her dad is a new convert and her mom has recently returned to activity in the church.  Elder Vimahi mentioned that this little girl has a hard time sitting still and being attentive during b their lessons with her.  At one of their visits the little girl had some friends over.  So Elder Vimahi and his companion took two sheets of paper and on one they wrote “Earth” and on the other they wrote “Heaven”.  He then placed the two sheets of paper very far away from each another and told the little girl she had to jump from earth to heaven.  “It’s too far!” She said.  “Well, you gotta try” Elder Vimahi urged.  So she tried and she didn’t make it.  Her friends tried too but none were successful.  Then Elder Vimahi and his companion took 5 more sheets of paper and wrote one of the following each on a separate piece of paper:

1. Faith
2. Repentance
3. Baptism
4. Gift of the Holy Ghost
5. Endure to the End  

He then placed each of these sheets of paper in between the “Earth” and “Heaven” papers and had the girls use them as stepping stones to get from Earth to Heaven.  As they stepped on each one, he had them explain what each “step” meant.  The first girl reached the end said, “I win!” to which Elder Vimahi answered “Well in this game, everyone wins!”  He credited the game idea to some fellow sister missionaries who had taught a good number of children.  I thought it was brilliant and loved that the Elders were wise to ask the sisters for some teaching ideas.

Before hanging up Elder Vimahi asked me to send a leather bound triple combination set of scriptures for Ellie with his name engraved on it, the Navajo tacos recipe (one of Vita’s faves) and the guitar arpeggios flash cards.  Sounds like a list of priorities: teach, eat, music 😉 .  Hopefully he’ll squeeze sleep in there somewhere.  We’re proud of you Elder Vimahi and love and miss you tons!  Keep the fire of faith and hard work burning!