The Faithful Member

Well, this week was officially the best week of my mission. So many cool experiences.

We started the lessons with a family who is super cool. Actually, the mom and the daughter have come to church several times but we thought that they were members. But we have our faithful member who talked to them and set up lessons. The dad was there too. The most powerful moment was when we asked  him if he believed in God, and he said that he used to. We asked him why and he talked about his first wife and child dying. We just bore simple testimony that because of Jesus Christ, he and his family could be saved, and he could see them again. That simple testimony helped him to get one for himself. It was a really good lesson and we set up a second lesson. At the beginning of the second lesson they told us that they had a surprise. Sweet! It was that they were getting married in August. Good news already, but our faithful member made it even better by changing the marriage date to the fifteenth of July. At the end of the lesson we fixed their baptisms for that date, and their daughter for the 24 of Juin. It's really cool because Afa*, the dad, has never set foot in a chapelle before, and doesn't really know God that much, but I've seen in this week how much his testimony has grown. And he came to church! What a golden family.

Our faithful member is currently talking to two other couples, and they're starting the lessons this week. Everyone should be like our Faithful member!

We fixed the baptism of Paul. It's for the 8 Juillet. It's so cool to hear his testimony. I don't know if I said it last week, but every lesson he testifies of the truthfulness of this church. And he came to church for the first time this sunday. We showed him around the church afterward as he waited for the faithful member to bring him home, and he was pretty excited for his baptism when we showed him the font. He's not sure he'll fit in the font, but I think it'll work out.

We also had a good discussion with Noelani and fixed a date for the 24 june before she leaves for Raiatea. She wants it so bad, and there's just one thing that blocks her, but I think it will all work out in the end. I'm glad to know that our concert last week had such a big impact on everyone. Oh yeah, our total of investigators that came is now at least twenty!

On saturday we had the baptism of Oliana. It's always a good experience to be a part of this imprtant covenant being made. She's young, but she has a strong testimony.

Now the news that I wasn't super happy with: Transfers. Yep, I'm leaving. I guess the Lord needs me somewhere else. I really would have wanted to stay and continue working with these investigatots. I've gotten so close to them and I feel like I still have stuff I can do to help them, but I'm going. I'm going to the stake of Papeari, the ward of Mataiea. It's one of the prettier parts of Tahiti, although I don't know if the mssionary work is so hot there. We'll see. My new compagnon is Elder Rice form Australia.

Well, the Lord just won't stop blessing me here in Polynésie Française. I'm so grateful that He is ALWAYS looking out for me and helping we reach out to this people. I'll just leave you with my testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he WILL save us if we are willing. He's the only path that leads  to the Kingdom of God. I'm so grateful for Him.

Okay, bonne semaine!

Elder Lewis


(The following photos were taken from various facebook sources.)

Blessings Pouring Down

This was a really good week. On tuesday we did a split and had some good lessons. We taught the best lesson I ever taught on the Law of Chastity. Yeah, that sounds a little weird. But it's true. The spirit was strong and our ami accepted it.  We also managed to teach an investigator that we don't see very often and we did a lesson with her. We talked about the LdM and she accepted to read it. Then we saw her again and talked more about the importance of knowing it was true and finding the true church and she said that if she hadn't been baptised protestant she would've been baptised mormon. You know what? We can work with that. There are a lot of people that say things like that and once they start to feel the spirit things change completely. We also did a fun lesson with Oliana where we taught her the ten commandments in twenty minutes and she remembered them all perfectly. She's definitely ready for her baptism this saturday.

We were able to restart the lessons with La'akia again! Ever since Elder Fareata left we haven't done the lessons because her copain didn't want her to. This week we were able to talk with him and he accepted. And he assisted the lesson! It was good, the spirit was there, and we're coming back. La'akia also came to our concert yesterday with one of her kids. Also, we started lessons with the brother of La'akia who almost got baptised a few years ago, but didn't. We'll see how those lessons go.

On thursday we had the baptism of Sefina. It was really cool to see her new husband baptise her. That's not something you see a whole lot. And as with all good things that happen, Satan tries hard to prevent them form happening. Right before we're about to make a good choice, Satan tempts us and he gives us trials so that we'll go backwards instead of forewards. There was no exception here. There were definitely trials but Sefina and Hamuera are strong and they became stronger from these experiences. 

We finally fixed the baptism of Jacqueline. It's not anytime soon, but she chose, and I guess what matters most is that she'll be making a holy alliance with Heavenly Father. She'll get baptised the 19 August. She's still going strong, her testimony is only getting bigger.

Yesterday we had our missionary concert and it went super well. Our DMP brought seven investigators with him, and we had a total of at least twelve show up, including David. He still wants to be baptised but we haven't been able to get him to come to church. Well, the concert changed everything. At the end there were lots of positive results. David promissed us that he would come to church again next week with this member that we had pick him up. He really felt the spirit and loved the songs. That was really cool to see. He also wants to get his family to follow him. It reminds me of the Tree of Life that Lehi saw in his vision. Once he ate of the fruit, the first thing that came to his mind was that he had to bring his family over to eat of the fruit. I think that David will be a big example for his family. Also that evening Noelani* was ecstatic. We heard from DMP that she wants to get baptised before she leaves for Raiatea soon. When she saw the baptism of Sefina she was really touched and the concert helped even more. We weren't able to talk to the other investigators but I'm sure they all felt the spirit and have a stronger desire to follow the living Christ. I guess in the end that concert was a big success. 

Well, that's the news for this week. Lot's of success, lots of blessings, lots of help from God. It's sad that I'll be leaving this secteur soon, I've seen so many people change and I would love to see that continue. We find out this friday what the transfers are, so by next week I might not even be in Faaa anymore. Have a good week!

Elder Lewis

Octopus

Faaa

That's Elder Fawson

This was the weekend where it rained super hard and the chapelle was cancelled.

Enu was supposed to announce his baptism, but chapelle was cancelled so we just talked to him for a while

That's some missionaries after we went out to clear mud

More Faaa. For it being the ugliest place on Tahiti I don't know why I took so many pictures of it.

We had a member from another ward give us a ton of food. We did a service project and made dinner for a family. Super fun

The baptism of Enu

It was the président de Pieu, Président Pédron that baptised him

Eating Maa Tahiti with members

Fafaru mmmmm

Taro, Fe'i, manioc

Uru Pua'atoro with Enu ma

I saw Aimee again!

Soirée Familiale with Maipe and Patrice

Plan of Salvation lesson at the Temple

Marriage, Baptism, Temple...A Good Week

This was a good week. It didn't go quite like expected, but it was good.

We had a really good lesson wwith Paul and David. We had originally planned on talking about the Law of Chastity, but it did a complete turn and turned out much better. David told us about a catholic pasteur that came to his house the night before and did a presentation for a group of about twenty people. He told us about how the pasteur read a verse- there's one faith, one Lord, one baptism. So we talked about that a little bit and asked him if he had found the true faith yet. He told us that he hadn't found it yet and was still searching. He talked about some doubts he had and then all of a sudden it started changing. He suddenly said that he knew that this church is true and that he was willing and ready to get baptised, he was ready to give up alcohol, and that the only worry he had was that his family might not accept. Woah! I don't know what happened, but I know the Lord was working with him, and I know that he recieved a testimony. We engaged him for the first of july, and little did we know that that is the birthday of his father who recently passed away. And it wasn't even the date we had planned on giving him. The Lord works in mysterious ways. 

So he said he would pray to know if that was the right date for him. Then we turned to Paul who wasn't paying a whole lot of attention because we were focused on David and we asked him if he would be baptised the same date. He said that he would if he had more faith, which we can totally work with. Things are going well with those two. Now we'll start working more with Fetu, the brother of Jacky.

We're also working with Rarahu*, the Neice of Hamuera. There's basically nothing holding her back, and I hope that seeing her uncle get baptised gave her more of a desire to get baptised. We also started lessons with her eight year old brother who's a little crazy and doesn't listen much, but maybe he'll want the gospel more when he's older. 

Saturday was the mariage and the baptism. It all went well at first. Then, right before the baptism, there was a tiny problem: Hehu*, who was supposed to baptise her, didn't bring white clothes. And the first solution that everyone gave was to push back the baptism of Sefina for next week. They all seemed to think that that was the best solution, and elder Malca and I were just thinking, What!? Why? But then another bigger problem came up and she wasn't able to be baptised. 

It all went well for Hamuera and that's an experience that I'll never forget. And I saw how mch faith Sefina has because she didn't wait for things to fall in place, but she immediately set up plans for when she would be able to be baptised. Also, Hamuera has been given th Aaronic Priesthood so now he can baptise his wife!! So cool! That will be another special moment.

We started our missionary concert yesterday. We've been practicing every pday for rseveral hours for the past transfer. It doesn't leave a lot of time to do other stuff on pday, but it's cool. We did our first concert at the stake of Taravao, so I was able to see some old members and amis from Tautira. We did one last repetition right before the concert and it was... terrible, actually. We didn't really know our parts. But then when we performed everything worked out really well and everyone could feel the spirit. We didn't sing perfectly (hopefully it will be better next week) but the spirit did the rest. also, because Taravao is on the complete opposite side of the island, we did the tour de l’île (I don't remember how to say that in english). Next week the concert is here in Faaa. 

One last fun event of the week: We were able to go to the temple this week. That's always a fun experience. We don't get to go that often so it's always an experience to look forward to. What a blessing to have a temple so close!

Okay, that's the fun adventures for this week. Nana!

Elder Lewis

"Perseverance Really Pays Off"

Iaorana tataou!

E mea maitai rii teie hepetoma no te mea aita e hoa na te ekaresia e rave rahi. Te vai ra te mau hoa tei hinaaro ia bapetizohia, tera ra, E mea ohie ore ia imi i te mau ta'ata no te haapii ia ratou. We have a challenge for the mission where we have to find fifteen new investigators per équipe for the month of may. Were finding them all right, not too hard, but keeping them is hard. I don't know what the curse is lately, but the investigators that we find dissappear a week later. There are super potential ones too. 

Actually, there is an investigator that we gave up on, we would fix a lesson and she wouldn't show up. Then we would pass by one or two times a day for the next week trying to refix a lesson, then finally we see her, set up a lesson, and she doesn't show up. So we let her go, but then one day this week we had nothing to do and we were down the street so we stopped by. And what do you know, she was there! So we did the lesson on the restauration and a friend who was there ended up joining in, so we taught them both. And this new person showed more interest than our investigator. So they invited us back, and accepted to pray to know if our message is true. I just hope there will be a next time, haha. So I guess perseverance really pays off. Never give up on a good cause because it will always be worth it. 

Also, we did our weekly lessons with Paul and David, our two investigators that could be really potential. This time the brother of Paul, Fetu* showed up. He surprised us by basically telling us about all of our missionary lessons in detail and then going into other topics like patriarchal blessings. He really wanted to get a patriarchal blessing and the priesthood, but knew he needed to be worthy first. So we encouraged him and told him what he needed to do to get those things. He knew all this stuff thanks to a member friend who talks often about the Church. Now THAT'S a missionary! We'll see how the second lesson goes. Hopefully he will be able to bring Paul and David along with him. Normally he should've come to church, too, but we had a surprise conference for the Pacific that cancelled our normal chapelle. 

We did the baptismal interviews for Sefina and Hamuera. They're good to go! Hamuera prophesied that I would stay here just long enough to baptise him and then I would go. Normally, there was no doubt that I would go, but he was sure. We got the calls on friday (or rather didn't) so I'm staying here. The thing is, the next transfer is in three weeks. Things are a little weird because the next mission president is coming in, so we have a small transfer and then a long one. So I'll really stay here just long enough to be there for the baptism and then I'll go. I don't know how Hamuera does that. At the conference too, there was a moment where he leaned over and whispered "now she's about to talk about tithing" and then not three seconds later she started talking about tithing. What?! haha.

Anyway, voila some fun stories of the week. I'm super excited to stay here a little longer and I hope I'll be able to do a few more miracles before I leave. The work's still going a little slow, but that's okay, because I'm seeing the blessings constantly.

Okay, bonne semaine!

Elder Lewis

"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

Dream Trip

Wow, I've had such good weeks here in Tavararo that I forgot how it feels to have a bad one, Until this week. 

We lost Matua. We had a faatamaaraa with him and his wife but it got cancelled because he doesn't want us to come anymore. That's sad. He was starting to progress. We'll keep trying, one day he will accept again. 

We fixed the baptism for Palila*. She definitely wants it. The thing is it's fixed for pretty soon and she still has a lot of stuff to take care of before that date. We're praying that everything goes well and that she'll be able to make it for the 20th. We also fixed the baptism of Hehu*, the twelve-year-old for the same day. That one isn't super sure either because we still need the parental permission and we need to make sure that he really understands the gospel and is willing to obey God's commandments.

We started teaching this guy more regularly. He didn't show much interest in the lessons at first but now he's accepting us more. He just doesn't quite understand, and that's a little frustrating. We spent two entire lessons talking about prophets. We tried explaining their importance, that God communicates to us through them, that they are the ones that wrote the scriptures, etc. and he kept coming back to the fact that Jesus is his only prophet and that he believes in the other prophets but not really. In the end we gave up trying to explain that and went on to a more basic topic, faith. That went a little better. At the end of one of the lessons I said the prayer. I guess I said something that he didn't like very much becuase the next lesson he had Elder Malca say the prayer and specifically told him what NOT to say in the prayer. He also had Elder Malca end the lesson with the prayer(because he didn't want me doing it). Haha I don't know if that was a very spiritually uplifting experience or anything but it's kind of amusing. We'll see if that leads anywhere.

We found a solution for Jacqueline so that she can be baptised in two weeks. She wanted to get baptised as soon as possible and we were really excited. But when we talked to her she said that her husband who is an inactif coming back didn't want her to rush things. She said that she wants to get baptised on her birthday, which is in August. Nooo! Hopefully the spirit will tell her that she needs to do it sooner.

Okay, now for the DreamTrip. We were eating dinner with a family and little did we know but they invited this DreamTrip guy to come buy. So instead of us giving our spiritual message, everyone left the table to hear this guy talk. What is Dream Trip? It's this club you can join to go on trips for a lot cheaper. There are a bunch of discounts and you can invite friends and stuff. We thought the guy would just talk for a little bit and then we could share our message, but he kept going. He talked really fast, and I feel like people talk really fast when they try to sell things and that makes people think they're getting a good deal.  So this guy was trying to sell this DreamTrip and everyone was just consumed in what he said. They were awed at how cheap it was. We were just waiting to give our message (which never happened) so we listened a bit. It wasn't bad, actually. 

But my companion and I couldn't help but but compare this DreamTrip to the gospel. Yeah, I know, we're definitely missionaries. We compare everything to the gospel. But everyone is so excited about this cheap voyage. Why don't we have investigators like that? What's the difference between this guy sellng a trip and us offering Eternal Life? Maybe it's just the way we present it? It's sure that if everyone knew all the blessings of Eternal Life they would be rushing to get it. There's no fee, it's free. It doesn't last two weeks, it lasts the eternity. You don't have a limit to how many friends and family you bring, everyone is welcome. I wish people took more seriously the gospel. I wish they had a desire to have the gospel blessings like they do for temporal blessings. 

Anyway, Eternal Life is definitely worth it. I'm glad to be here helping people to have these blessings and I've seen the gospel change the lives of everyone that it touches. If that testimony isn't enough for someone to accept it, I don't know what is. 

Elder Lewis

Catching Up

I didn't write a letter last week so I'll try to update on that. Last Wednesday was the marriage of Ari'i and Kalea. On saturday he got baptized. It was cool because he bore testimony after his baptism telling about a story of our bishop healing his very sick baby many years ago. That blessing was his first step towards Eternal Life. That just shows that all the little acts of service that we do can really help people to come unto Christ. They might not be ready right away, but they might accept the gospel later in their life.

That was the highlight of last week, and actually there weren't a whole lot of cool experiences a part from that.  David and Paul are starting to progress more. We talked about prophets and they are starting to believe more. Paul is pretty excited to tell us about church facts that he found out from his girlfriend who is mormon. He was the one that reminded me that the church was restored on the sixth. He was supposed to come to church, too, but his dad passed away that weekend, and he couldn't come. Hopefully next week. 

This week we found a couple of potential investigators. There is a couple, Rua* and Stephanie* who were old investigators. We restarted lessons with them and invited them to come to church. They came, and it seems like they're ready this time. There aren't a whole lot of things that block (except for marriage) so we'll keep working with them. 

We also had an ami who hasn't had any desire to take lessons seriously suddenly show up at church this sunday. We had already invited him and he said no because he already had his church. And then he showed up! And then he made it to a stake soirée for investigators. Maybe there is potential after all...

Also, the highlight of this week was the baptism of Kolinaisi* and Ku*, the two kids. It was all right, except I guess they don't really understand completely the sacredness of it all. During one of the short talks at the beginning, Kolinaisi disappeared, and no one knew where he went. Thankfully he showed up in time for the baptism. Also, after the baptism, people took some pictures of the two kids in the water with the man who baptised them, but they weren't really focused on the pictures, just the fact that there was a little swimming pool in the church, so they played in that for a little bit. Oh, well. They will understand as they get older, they still have a long way to go. And now they are members of the restored church of Jesus Christ.

Okay, I don't have much more time, but those are the highlights of the week. Have a good week everyone! à la prochaine!

Orometua Lewis

(Photos from a recent Zone Conference)