Hello Everyone! / Sent March 18 / 2019
Well, I think in the last 3 or so months, I have written about one group email, give or take. I decided to stop writing every week a little while ago, and then with the new skype think my motivation to write a group email dropped even more. But I have decided to repent! I am gonna write a nice long email today, so buckle up, or bail ship now if you're like me.
For those of you who don't know, I'm serving in the ward of Vahiria, in the stake of Papeari. My companion is Elder Brown, and he is honestly the best, I love that guy so much. It's kind of on the southeast side of the big part of Tahiti, nearing the small part. If you look it up on google maps, we live in Mataiea. Life is great here and the work is going good!
Actually, about the work. Oh man we have had some tough luck here in Vaihiria. We had two baptisms fixed, and a couple weeks ago they both disappeared. One of them ended up staying at the other side of the island for a week to work without telling anyone, so he is back now, but he is going to be leaving to another island for work soon, but he doesn't know when or for how long, so we can't really fix a date with him at this moment. The other one got chased out of his house for who knows why. Then he moved in with his cousin, luckily still in our sector. But when we restarted the lessons with him, he got kicked out again! This time just for inviting the missionaries over. Oh man talk about feeling awful. We helped him get his stuff and tried to help him find a place. When we couldn't, he just said we would see him around. We didn't see him for a few weeks, but then luckily at zone conference we saw him! We pulled over to talk, and turns out he lives with someone else in the sister's sector, so we passed the reference to them, hopefully, it all goes well.
Also, a sister in our ward just got back from her mission, and she is awesome!! She wants to come to lessons with us, and is an amazing member integrater! She is befriending all of our amis and making them feel super loved and inviting them to everything. Let me tell you, if every member acted like that, this whole Island would get baptized in a matter of months. If any of you want to do missionary work, please do it! Just be a friend and don't be afraid to invite people to activities and to church and to talk with them about the Gospel! It honestly makes the world of a difference when the members are there to help find and support the amis. (Amis means friend, its what we call the investigators).
I'm gonna really miss the food here when I go home. There is a lot of stuff that we call 'Maa Tahiti' which basically means Tahitian food. Things like Uru, taro, poisson cru, sashimi, lait coco, oh man its soo good. I send some pictures of us cooking up the Uru, I think its called breadfruit in English. We made that with Punu puaatoro (Basically canned meat, but good canned meat, not that puree stuff). last P-day, so good.
Life is great out here, the transfer ends this week, and Elder Brown is probably out of here. I will only have three transfers left and I'm not ready to go!! Gotta make the most of every minute! Nothing in the world is more fulfilling or brings more joy than the work of the Lord.
One last thought, I read a conference talk this week that I absolutely loved! It is by Elder Dale G. Renlund and its called Choose You This Day. It was just last conference, October 2018, and it is truly incredible. It makes our purpose here so clear, the commandments aren't just rules to test our obedience, they are the path to becoming like God! I truly believe that that is true, and I very highly recommend reading this talk, it is amazing.
Ok, for those lucky (or unlucky) few of you who made it this far, one last thing. I read a quote the other day that really touched me. I believe it was by Elder Ballard, and it:
said "The spirit cannot be restrained when a pure testimony of Christ is Borne." Wow!!!!! All we are trying to do out here is get people to feel the spirit, and there he told us a fool proof way to do it! Now whenever we don't know where to go in a lesson or what to say, even often in contacting, I just bear the purest testimony I can of Christ and his love and his Atonement, and I can testify that It works every time!! I know that Christ lives, he knows and loves each and every one of us, and he was willing to come to earth and suffer all that anyone has ever suffered, and pay the price of all of our sins, just so that we could be cleansed of our sins and return to live with him and our Father in Heaven again! He wants nothing more that our happiness, and all that he teaches us and asks of us is only to guide us to his healing power and to an eternal joy. He restored his church in these latter days, and his church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that this is true.
said "The spirit cannot be restrained when a pure testimony of Christ is Borne." Wow!!!!! All we are trying to do out here is get people to feel the spirit, and there he told us a fool proof way to do it! Now whenever we don't know where to go in a lesson or what to say, even often in contacting, I just bear the purest testimony I can of Christ and his love and his Atonement, and I can testify that It works every time!! I know that Christ lives, he knows and loves each and every one of us, and he was willing to come to earth and suffer all that anyone has ever suffered, and pay the price of all of our sins, just so that we could be cleansed of our sins and return to live with him and our Father in Heaven again! He wants nothing more that our happiness, and all that he teaches us and asks of us is only to guide us to his healing power and to an eternal joy. He restored his church in these latter days, and his church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that this is true.
Thanks for everything! I love you all and have a marvelous week!
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