"It's the Holy ghost that teaches, that touches ones heart, that testifies of truth. I'm just the mouthpiece."

Here are some of the updates on our investigators that are close to baptism:

I think it's still going good for Sefina and Hamuera. Last week they got in an argument and didn't come to church. We saw them afterwards, gave them some advice, and gave them a scripture to read everytime they were about to argue- Moroni 7 . They said it worked. Yesterday they didn't come either, but we found out that it was because they watched beach soccer (Tahiti lost against Brazil 6-0-yikes!) and had to go to the presqu’île.

Things are going better with Hehu. He understands more and is more willing to keep the commandments, almost ready for baptism.  We hope that continues. 

Palila won't be getting baptised like we planned. I know one day she will be, but there is a bigger problem than we thought. It's sad because we know she wants it and she knows it's true. She just can't get all the blessings right now. We're not giving up, that's for sure.

We found a new investigator, Oliana*. She's almost nine years old. She lives with her grandparents who are inactive but coming back to church. We did a first lesson and she accepted baptism. She'll be baptised on her birthday, in june. I don't know if I'll still be here to see it, but I'm excited for her! I think she'll be the example that will bring her whole family back to church.

Jacqueline wants to wait for her marriage to be baptised. She picked her birthday as a date, too. In August. We looked at a calendar and saw that it's a monday. Well, she doesn't want to get baptised on a monday, so it looks like we'll be able to figure out a better date. We're also going to start lessons with her daughter this week, so I hop that goes well.

And here are some other cool stories of the week:

We had another faatamaaraa with Matua and Patrice* and Matua showed up. He still wasn't entirely himself, but at least he was willing to talk to us again. We just shared a small message on charity. We wanted to end with a song. I think in english it's "a Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. The thing is that no body knew the tune except for me and my compnion, so we sang for the family. There's also a part where it gets high and Elder Malca abandoned me on those parts to do a solo. For anyone who knows me, they're probably cringing at the fact that I sang, and I can assure you it was just as bad as you think. Yet, the spirit was still there. That's a testimony that I'm just an instrument in the hands of the Lord, a tool to help people in their lives. It's the Holy ghost that teaches, that touches ones heart, that testifies of truth. I'm just the mouthpiece. Despite my bad singing, my bad french (and tahitian) and my lack of other talents or skills, the Holy Ghost can still touch the hearts of people and testify the truth of our message. 

Wow, that's actually all for this week. I don't think we did anything else notable. It was pretty fun though. Here's a last thought before I leave:

Joseph Smith said that if we don't learn anything in this life, we're no different than animals. They have no knowledge of God or of His plan, they just know how to eat and drink and survive. For us, we need to spend as much time as we can learning the gospel and becoming familiar with the great Plan of God. The more knowledge we recieve in this life, the greater the advantage in the life to come. I think that there are so many things to discover through scripture study and prayer that we don't take the time to do. We would rather live like animals, living a simple life with out a lot of knowledge. My engagement for you: Discover a principle of the gospel that you had never thought of before in your scripture study. If you really want to know the mysteries of God, you will receive. I know that that will help you build your testimonies of God and His plan for us. 

Okay, see you next week!

Elder Lewis