This was a good week. It's just one of those weeks where you feel accomplished, even if you didn't have a whole lot of success. In this secteur we don't have a whole lot of time to find new people, it's just going to our fixed lessons. We tend to always be late, too. Right now we're just focusing on the investigators that we teach, and things are going pretty well with them. I think the reason why we're always late is just because everyone talks a ton. A TON. Normally one visit shouldn't last more than an hour, but sometimes we're stuck talking to people for two and a half hours. It's crazy. It's a little stressful because a bunch of people expect a bunch out of us and they won't let us take care of other things. But it's all right, that's just life.
Actually, this week Elder Tiatia and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Teriitahi and he'll be staying with us until the end of my mission, then he takes the plane to Madagascar which is his real mission.
Brigitte* and her inactif boyfriend, Afu* the other week and at the end they asked us for a few things. They felt a little embarrassed to ask us to help them, but when we said we could, they asked for more. One of the things they asked for was shelves. I'm not entirely sure why they need shelves, but we said we would help them. So we brought it up in our Conseil de Paroisse and randomly someone there told us that he had a spare shelf that he was getting rid of. So we set up a few plans to help them with those needs. I hope it will help Brigitte to open up her heart more. In our last lesson we talked about charity and she realised that she needs to change too, not just Afu. Afu has been working hard to change his life. He comes to the chapelle each week, he's respecting almost all the commandments, he's just waiting on Brigitte right now. We're praying so that they can become a family united for eternity.
We had a great lesson with Ivan. We learned a lot of key information. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and we engaged him to keep it by the 10 September. He prayed about the date of baptism that we gave him, and said that he didn't get the answer, but after talking about it for a while we showed him that he DID feel the Holy Ghost. So he wants to pray again and if he feels the same way, he'll take that for his answer. Also, one of his member integrators is his brother who came here from Huahine to see the doctor. Ivan was there to see his brother's baptism three years ago, and he wants his brother to be there for his baptism before he goes back to Huahine. He has a strong testimony, he's working hard to change his life, and it's really cool to see the gospel change his life. Right now we're hoping that his brother will go back to Huahine quickly! haha but either way, I'm glad to be able to help these people. It's awesome.
The big event of the week was Saturday. Elder Stevenson came to Tahiti and we were able to do a conference with him. He's definitely called of God, I have no doubt of that. He gave some really good points on missionary work. I feel like if I were to right them down you wouldn't care that much so I won't do that. But for part of it he talked about obedience and the blessings we get from being obedient. That can apply to all of us, not just missionaries. One of Satan's tactics is to get us to think that obedience (or righteousness) is misery, and that disobedience (or wickedness) is joy (Alma 41:10). If you think that by being obedient to the commandments of God is stopping you from being happy or if you think that you can be selectively obedient and that you will still receive blessings, you are being tempted by the devil and you need to get rid off these thoughts. That can be dangerous.
He also had us unlock our hearts for two minutes and gave us advice on the second mission, but don't worry, we locked our hearts right back up haha. I've still got the final stretch of the first mission, and I'm not slowing down. I hope by the end I'll be able to quote 2 Timothée 4:7
Oh, by the way, the bapism of Mark got pushed back one week, partly because of the arrival of Elder Stevenson, partly because of some other things, but it's still solid. He's getting baptised the 2 September now.
That's all for this week. God lives. He always talks to us through his messengers that he chose.
Jesus Christ can save us from everything that is bad. Je vous aime! à la prochaine!
Elder Lewis
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