Message in a Bottle: Oaoa Noela! (Merry Christmas!)

This week was pretty good. We had two baptisms, my first of the mission! For Luc's baptism, I was going to give a talk on baptism, but the other speaker did instead, which left me about two minutes to scramble together thoughts on the gift of the Holy Ghost. We also had Alain's wedding and then baptism. Then, this Saturday we have Rava's baptism. Yeah!

This week we contacted in the middle of a drug deal. We went up to these two guys and started talking. Then we noticed they were smoking. As we were talking, one of them walked behind us, sold some drugs to someone else, and then booked it on his pink bike. That was a fun experience.

This Sunday we picked up a mini missionary, our next door neighbor. He'll be with us for the next three weeks, so hopefully we'll be able to pick up the work and get more investigators, because everyone wants to sleep and get drunk over the Holidays and we're losing a lot of people until after the Holidays. We were able to attend his ward for Sacrament meeting and the Christmas program, then pick him up after he was set apart, and go to our ward's Christmas program where all the primary kids sang. It was adorable when this little (maybe four or five years old) kid got all emotional in his solo and started crying. I started feeling the Christmas spirit from that point on. Some of the primary kids also made us some treats, so that made my day.

I've been studying a lot in General Conference talks and the scriptures about faith. I really love that topic. What I've found out is that having the desire to believe will lead to faith. With faith we can perform miracles, but it's after our faith that God shows us miracles. The scriptures say that if we have the faith the size of a seed, we could command a mountain to move. I'm pretty sure most of us have at least that much faith. So why don't we move mountains? Because we don't think we're able to. We're lacking faith in ourselves even though we have enough faith to work miracles. My challenge is for everyone to find the faith to work miracles. And it all starts with the desire.

I've also thought about families a lot and the importance of gospel centered families. It's extremely important that parents teach their kids from an early age to build a testimony. From Family Home Evening to daily scripture study to sincere prayers to seeking spiritual knowledge. We were sent here to become like God and the family can really help us get there.

So those are my thoughts for this week. I know that God has a plan for us and that he is always waiting for us to search, through scriptures or prayer, and he wants to give us the answers we're looking for. I know that the gospel truly makes you happy, and that nothing in this word can come close to giving you a successful, happy life than the word of God. I know that God lives. I know that he loves us. I know that as we strive to obey all of his commandments, the windows of Heaven will be poured out upon us. I know that if we have faith we can work miracles.

I'm like Alma right now, wanting to preach the word of God to everyone and letting everyone feel of the love, joy, and peace that I feel, but I'm satisfied with my calling to teach the people in Tahiti. I have complete faith in the Savior and his saving and helping power for each of us.

Merry Christmas!

Elder Lewis