Just Some Guys Being Elders- Sent Dec. 11th

Where we had our district meeting.


      Well, we had a pretty good week! It is crazy how hot it is here. I got totally sunburned biking to Tapuamu and back (about an hour both ways). Definitely not Christmas weather, but all of our decorations make it feel like Christmas. Fun stuff!
   So just a funny story to try to paint a picture of what life here is like. We were biking away from a lesson on some little dirt road. On one side of the dirt road is an open area with some cows, way random, and the other side is a ton of trees. There are actually lots of trees on the cow side as well, it is just more open than the other side. Anyway, we are biking down the road and hear someone yell "Elder ma!" (Ma is a Tahitian word that basically means "and everyone in company", so every one calls us Elder ma). We were looking around and didn't see anyone, the area was pretty enclosed by barbwire and trees so we were confused, but the call kept coming. Finally we look up and see someone in the tree. He is way high up in the tree waving some chainsaw around. I look down and all of the cows are eating the leaves of a tree branch he chopped down. He was just chilling up there chopping branches to feed his cows. Gotta love Tahaa.

   So a way cool miracle happened this week! One of the members, named Maea, had a super swollen knee. We went over there and she asked if we could give her a blessing, we said of course! My companion asked if she had the faith to be healed, and she said she knew she would be. So we gave her a blessing and ran off to a lesson. The next day she walked on over to us and was totally healed!! She never doubted and her faith amazed me. I learn so much about the power of faith from these members! I love it!

Patricia's Baptism
   Another fun story, we had a baptism yesterday! It went good, and hopefully opened the way to teach her daughters. Her name is Patricia and we have been teaching her for a couple months. She has a few teenage daughters who are interested, but their father is really opposed, so they haven't really been progressing. But they came to the baptism and to church and had a good experience! It is so great to see people accept the joy of the gospel. Patricia is an amazing example and hopefully one day we can get her husband to open up a little so the whole family can experience the blessings of the gospel!

   I can't really think of too much else that happened this week. It's funny, crazy stuff happens all week then I get to emailing and can only think of the random stories. Oh well. Love you all and have a great week, and remember to read the Book of Mormon every day!!








Awesome sunrise photos from the boat to Raiatea


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

8 Months!

   Holy cow can you guys believe that today is my 8 Month mark!?! That means I am already a third of the way done with the mission! It goes too fast! It feels like I just got here!    But man, this week was pretty awesome, we were so busy. We have been working so hard at getting the branch hyped on missionary work, and it is working! We have members who come and knock doors with us, members who go and visit the investigators, and who come on splits with us! It is the best! The members here are so nice and humble, I am so inspired by them and by their service, it is incredible.   I need to give a shout out to one of my favorite members, and to his truck. His name is Frère Tetuanui (Frère just means brother), and he is awesome. He is a big guy, no front teeth (super common), and he is missing an ear (less common). Anyway, two stories about him and his truck. So his truck is totally like something you would see in an Indiana Jones movie or something. It is greeni
Read more

Crazy Week / Sent Nov. 5, 2018

Image
Well, this week definitely felt a little nuts. I will try to sum it up the best I can. Wish me luck!    The hardest part of this week was having to say goodbye to Elder Hurd. He had to go home this week and it was really hard to see him go. But I have to give him a huge shout out for being a great missionary, even though he was dealing with a lot of stuff we didn't even know about, and I am sure he will be able to come back one day and kill it as a great missionary.    Me and Elder Clarke have been doing good though, and we thought we were going to finish out the last two weeks of the transfer like that, but nope, plot twist! The assistants called and let me know that later today I am going to go get another companion, someone who is waiting for a visa. So starting later today I will be in a trio again, with a tahitian who probably doesn't speak english, and Elder Clarke who is still learning french, so that's gonna be an experience. Just when I thought my transfe
Read more

Rain, Rain, Rain - Sent January 8, 2018

Image
  It rains a lot in Tahaa. Especially this week for some reason. The biggest problem with rain is that everybody just camps at home and tells you to go home too. Even bishop saw us out and was like, "what are you guys doing out here!?" so that was funny. At one point it was storming SUPER hard and I had to bike around the island for a split. I decided to whip out my handy dandy poncho, and everyone was getting pretty good laughs out of how it looked. But they sure weren't laughing when I made it all the way to the other side of the island (about 90 minutes on bike) completely dry! Well, that's what I would have said if it was true, but unfortunately the poncho didn't stop the rain at all and I was totally soaked. Got some funny pictures though!   So apparently in French Polynesia there is a tradition. It goes something like this: "The new years party goes half way through January and nobody talks to the missionaries." That's just a rough tr
Read more