And the Work Goes On! Sent Nov. 13th

  Man this week was crazy. It felt so long, and at the same time it felt like it flew by. With transfers and everything it was nuts, but super good. The work is still progressing here and I seem to be figuring out how to actually be a missionary, so good stuff!

  I dropped Elder McQuiston off on the boat to Raiatea, that's where he is serving now, as our zone leader. Then later that day Elder Kimball, me new companion arrived on a boat on the other side of the island, then took a bus to our area. It was a little crazy because he arrived about 15 minutes before a lesson, and we had a bunch piled up, so he didn't even get to the house until the evening. I was a little worried about the transfer, because he isn't that much more experienced than me, but he is awesome. We are already pretty tight and working well together, and his french is great, so that is awesome.

  I was scared that after transfers the work would slow down here, but not at all. Let me tell you a bit about one of my favorite investigators, Atamu. He is 21, and has a great testimony. But the problem is he has a girlfriend, who isn't the oldest in the world, and he needed to be taught the law of chastity. Luckily they weren't living together, but it still isn't the easiest lesson to teach. But we just taught it super straight forward, and asked him to follow it. He said he would, and me and Elder Kimball kind of paused not knowing what to do, because most of our lesson was based on him not accepting it right away. Then he bore testimony of the blessings that have come from stopping smoking and following other commandments, and how he new he would be happier this way. Wow! Talk about faith! I love it. Then later in the week we taught tithing. We asked him to read a description of tithing, but he didn't really understand it. So we taught with an example. We asked him if he had ten francs, how many would he have to give to the lord. His response was "Ten, give everything to the lord". We then spent some time explaining that actually he only needed to give ten percent, and he was pumped. I love Atamu.

  So district meeting this week was awesome. Normally the elders at Haamene, the other side of the island, get a ride over for the meeting, but they couldn't this week. And we couldn't get one over there, so we just decided to all bike and have the meeting wherever we happened to meet up. Well we had been going farther than I had been on bike before, and suddenly we saw sand. There was a tiny little beach!!! I didn't even know beaches existed on this island because of all the motu's, or the reef, or whatever it's called. Anyway, right then the Haamene elders ran into us and we got to have the meeting on some awesome little beach. I was in heaven. It was so cool. The downside was it started pouring near the end, and we had to bike back about 45 minutes in pouring rain. And my companions stuff hadn't arrived yet, so he didn't have a jacket. Pas grave, we were all still happy about it.

   Well, that about wraps up this week. I can definitely say I have learned a lot. I have been talking a lot more, and it has been cool to see the language coming! I know that God loves us and that he wants to bless us. Not only that, but he has told us how to be blessed. All we have to do is follow his commandments to receive so much joy!! It is so fun to see investigators find that joy, and I know it is real! 

Love you all, have a fantastically amazing week!