C'est la Vie!

Salut!

This week was kind of hard. We lost a few investigators (when I was on splits somewhere else, nonetheless), and a lot of our investigators aren't progressing. A typical lesson is following up on the commitments, and they didn't do any of them. We might ask an investigator if they read a certain chapter.They say yes, and when we ask them what they learned, they quickly skim the chapter and say something based on that. Then through the lessons, they agree with everything we say, and on to the commitments again that they never do. It can get frustrating. But we've been teaching a lot on how it's important to read an follow the commitments, and I think that will help.

We do have a set baptismal date on the 19th. He's a Belgian guy named Alain*. He's getting married to a Tahitian the same day he's getting baptized. Everyone thinks he's a member already. He knows a lot, goes to church each week, and is getting to know all the members.

We also have a few more. We have Palila* (who I committed to baptism my first day) who is deciding a date, Rava* who also just needs to decide a date, Vairea* who is living with her husband.  We offered her a new house to live in, but she refused. As soon as we get her out, she will be ready for baptism. We also have Heiarii*, a seventeen year old who is starting to really understands what we teach. He accepted baptism already. We taught him a few days ago, and asked if he had any questions about baptism he said "Qu'est-ce que c'est, la baptème?" Well, it was good he asked. We explained it, and he's getting ready for it.

Right now we're trying hard to find new investigators. It's not going super well right now, but it will come.

On Thanksgiving, we had a faatamaaaraa for lunch. These people owned a restaurant, and they just had us eat there. We had steak and fish kebabs, poisson cru, french fries, and of course bread to go on the side. Delicious. That evening we went over to a member's house for another faatamaaraa. He's French, but also speaks English, so he usually talks to us in English. We had lasagna and baguettes. We then helped him make the Thanksgiving dinner for the next day that he invited us to. He invited a bunch of non-member friends and would strategically place us so we could talk to them and bring up the gospel a little bit. I made a pumpkin pie from scratch, which was pretty fun. I always wondered how you actually make them.

We had the feast the next day. Turkey, stuffing, green beans, quiche, french fries (yes, and sadly they replaced mashed potatoes), and other foods. For desert, we had apple pie, pumpkin pie (which didn't end up great, but not bad), brownies, root beer floats. It was awesome. Let me just say I'm thankful for food. I'm thankful for missionary work, for my family, for all the things I took for granted back home.

We visited members the other day, and one of them was the Maono family. I realized how much I've progressed. I had my first faatamaaraa at their house and  remember I couldn't understand anything, and I barely talked. This time I not only understood everything they said, but talked and joked around with them. It's amazing the things you can do through the spirit and the gift of tongues in particular.

Some fun stuff: for Pday today we played beach soccer. I got some nice burns just to spite all the people living in snow right now. Also, people are starting to prepare for a cyclone. It's been really stormy the past few days, and they say it will come soon. That would be pretty cool if I had an Elder Groberg experience.

Okay, one last thing for this week. Leslie* is the cousin of Rava. She's been with Rava for about three lessons, and we taught her her own lesson yesterday. We taught her about prophets and the Restoration. Elder Millerberg did most of the talking, and as we were wrapping up, he asked me if I had anything to say. I had been thinking about talking about prayer, so I did. I told her that this all probably sounds crazy, but through prayer she could know if it's true. We ended up talking for a while after that. Then Liline started talking. Hold on. Let me explain Liline. She's a member that has helped us a lot in finding people to teach. Tahina, a new convert, and Palila live there, along with a few others. Also, it was this house that we offered to Vairea.  Rava goes there all the time, and we teach a bunch of lessons there. So we were at Liline's house, and at the end, she started to talk. She talked about her conversion to the Church and testified of it's truthfulness. The spirit was strong already, and that bought it even more. Leslie asked for a Book of Mormon and we set up anther appointment. I think we can commit her to baptism soon and that will also make Rava choose a date, too.

With experiences like this you can't deny the truthfulness of the church. The church is true, The spirit testifies. God will always help us when we need it.

Faaitoito!

Elder Lewis