Feasting on the Good Word of God

Man, this week was nothing compared to last week. I don't know what it was, but it seemed the whole mission struggled. But that's just part of the mission, I guess. We had tons of lessons cancelled. We visited seven references which all rejected the lessons, my bike broke multiple times which used up time to repair.

A good thing that happened was that with the lessons that we did have, they went well. I noticed that some of our investigators really got engaged. Maite, an investigator who is really quiet and doesn't like to do engagements opened up all of a sudden. She talked a lot, learned a lot of new things, and ended in a sincere prayer. It's cool to see investigators who aren't really engaged suddenly make the efforts and become one of your best progressing investigators.

Another investigator who did the same thing was Nunui. He and his girlfriend don't understand a lot of doctrine and usually keep quiet. Very quiet. They also opened up and were able to learn God's plan for them and the significance of this life. It's again so cool to see people enlightened by the Gospel and turn to Christ more and more.

I'd like to say General Conference was great this time, but I honestly didn't get a whole lot out of it.We woke up at 4:30 Saturday and Sunday to ride up to the other chapel and watch Conference. Between being super tired and listening to translations (with an french accent, not one I'm used to) I didn't get a lot out. Then for Priesthood session it was in Tahitian. We didn't even try to understand that. I could pick out random words like "mother" or "twelve". Another thing is when you can't understand very well, you tend to notice how the person translates and the mistakes they make, etc. Despite all that, I enjoyed the talks of Elders Holland and Hales especially, although I'm sure I missed out on a lot of good stuff.

We couldn't miss up the opportunity to do poisson d'Avril. Elder Terry and I thought about a prank to pull throughout the day. The best Idea we could come up with was to catch a chicken and stick it in the freezer of the other elders. So we grabbed a table cloth as our weapon and set to work. Honestly, it was pretty lucky tht we caught one. We stuffed it in a box, rode up and set up the surprise for them when they came back from dinner! I've got pictures. 

Other than that, no big news. Hopefully the work will progress this next week. I just remembered the story of Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants. He's in Liberty Jail in hard times. It's cold, there's no good food or water, the Saints are struggling. Joseph asks why it's so difficult. He gets a response telling him to have peace. He talks about Job, and that hardships are for our experience. I love Section 122:8. Verse 7 describes a lot of trials that could happen. Verse 8 says: The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

I think this scripture is saying that trials are a part of life. Jesus suffered for all of our trials in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross. He knows exactly what we're going through, and because he suffered the same thing, and overcame it, we can turn to Him during our trials to be healed. The Atonement works miracles. If we think that we shouldn't have trials on our lives, we're saying that we are greater thanour Savior. We need trials, that's part of God's Plan. I'm grateful for hard days, days without success, days where I feel like I messed up, or didn't reach my potential. I love the healing power that I've felt through Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I hope we can all better use His Sacrifice.

I guess that's my little message for the week. I love the Gospel! I love the mission! I love Jesus and His sacrifices for me! The message of the Gospel saves lives! I know it's true!

Elder Lewis

The front doors of the Chapel

 Fish and Octopus

One chicken, one note, all set for when they get home.