From Rival to Best Friend...
I would have never dreamed that my high school sports rival would become my very best friend and would want to learn about my beliefs.

It all started with an unexpected friend request. Much to my surprise, I realized that my high school sports rival was wanting to befriend me on facebook. Confused with her intentions, I spent ten minutes trying to decide if it would be wise to accept her. I finally recognized that the spirit was prompting me to accept the request. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Three days after befriending her, she started to ask me questions about my mission. through our conversation, I found out that she lives close to the church and had even seen Elders walking around. I felt inspired to invite her to be taught by the missionaries. It was such a wonderful thing to hear her accept this invitation! One of the miracles of this story is that my Uncle is the 1st counselor in the Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission Presidency, the very mission in which she lives. Without him, I would not have known how to contact the missionaries. Luckily, when I called home for Christmas, I was able to give him her address so she could have them visit her.

She loved the missionaries visits and would continue to ask me questions online. Because of the time difference, I worried that she would not be online. I prayed that she would somehow be online during the time I was logged on. Miraculously, she often was!

Three weeks after meeting the missionaries, she started going to church! Since December, she has not missed a week! One day I was asking her how she feels about the Gospel. She told me that she knows it is true and that she wants to be baptized. She also expressed that she wants to wait until I get home from my mission, so that I can be there for her baptism. With this great news, I am especially excited to help her prepare for the covenant of baptism.

One day I asked her what the Elders had just taught her. She told me that she had some questions and concerns. Amazingly, it was the very same subject that my companion had written a blog on the day before. I sent her the link and she told me that it really helped her.

Our friendship has grown through this experience. I have seen the Lord's hand directing us. There are more tender mercies than I can count. The Lord has really helped me to know what to say, even though we are so far away..

I thank Heavenly Father every day for this miracle. It's because of him I now have a lifelong friend who has also come to feel the joy of the Gospel.

And with this experience that happened to me it reminded about our Saviour Jesus Christ of how he forgives everyone and how he teaches us to love our enemy. I've learned a lesson from this girl-how she has a humble heart and talked to me even though we were rivals at school.  It taught me how it is important to forgive one another because that's what Heavenly Father wants from us and he wants us to follow the Saviors example and be a good example to the people around us. I know that it is hard sometimes but when we rely on the Savior and his atoning sacrifice  He can help us endure our trials,sickness,and pain..we can be filled with joy,peace and consolation and like what the scripture said in the book of Phillipians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me". I know that we can do all things through the Savior if we always try to make the right decisions in our lives and love our enemy and forgive one another. When we are depressed we ask ourself what is one thing we can do today that will be constructive for ourselves or someone else. We can try not to live in the past. If someone said something bad about us lets say something good about that person; if someone hates us, lets love them with all our hearts,if someone slaps your left cheek let them slap your right cheek too and try our best to be Christ like..By doing all these things it will help us to realize that we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and He loves us and cares for us and He wants us to be happy all the times.