Warning: When Tahitians get hold of a camera, they take pictures of anything...like old men holding papayas...

The moon

Haven't seen Francois in almost a year- First baptism here in Tahiti

Interesting...

Iaorana tatou!

E mea maitai rii teie hepetoma not te mea, e mea pae hoa i te ekalesia ta maua. Aita tei maua te tauturu no te mau melo, tera ra, e tamata maua ia rave maitai i te 'ohipa a te Fatu.

This week wasn't great missionary work-wise. We only have five or six investigators, not all of which I have yet seen. Contacting is difficult, everyone has already talked to and rejected the missionaries, and also we have the Témoins de Jéhovah coming around right after us to make it a little more difficult. Actually, yesterday we had them stop by our house and ask us if we were interested in talking about the bible. We invited them back tomorrow morning, but I'm not sure they'll come. They said something about it being to early for them, and not being on Sunday.

We went contacting down our own street a few days ago. We had no success until the very last house where we found a mami. We started talking to her, but pretty soon it was just her talking to us. She started talking about a circular house on Moorea that we must visit. So we told her we would try, and then asked her if we could share a message. She said no, because she had food in the oven. So we said we would let her go so her food wouldn't burn, but she started telling the same story about this circular house. And then when she finished, she started it over again. And again. So we told her we needed to go, and she told the story again. And again. And then we finally managed to leave before she told us the story again. Man, contacting is so fun!

We also found an old investigator in our book thing. I don't know how you say that in english, so I'll say it in french. Carnet du secteur. We called the number, and she answered and fairly quickly invited us back. She's taken the lessons for years and has been an eternal investigator. According to what other missionaries have said, she knows without doubt that the church is true, she knows the gospel perfectly, but she won't get married so that she can get baptised. Turns out all that is true. We'll see if now, a year after the last missionaries tried, she's ready to commit herself.

Other than that, we have a nine year old boy whose adopted member parents won't let him take missionary lessons or get baptised because they think his biological parents have to accept, we have a really potential investigator that's waiting for her marriage in January to get baptised, and we have another investigator who had a dream that she got baptised in July, and now she thinks that she's meant to get baptised then. There's potential, despite the lack of investigators, it's just a matter of getting them to commit sooner. 

That's about it for this week, not much happened. We'll see how this next week will turn out. Ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito! 

Orometua Lewis

L'Evangile Est Puissant (Power te Evanelia)

Iaorana tous le monde! This week was a little bit of an adventure. Again, we've mostly been focusing on our few faithful investigators. They're all prgressing, so that's good. I think there are a lot of potentials here.

On wednesday we visited some new converts. While we were visiting, their neighbor came by, sat down, and next thing we know we started a lesson. It turns out that recently she got really interested in our message, and when she saw us walking by, she took her chance and came to us. Super cool. She said that she was ready to get baptised, she just needed to get her husband to accept, and she said that he was already getting interested too. So we've been teaching her almost everyday. She shares spiritual experiences, like a sudden thought to help somebody, and that help was just what that person needed, or the strong spirit she felt when she prayed to know if our message is true. Right now, it's just a matter of teaching. Also, each evening she goes back to the new converts and they reexplain everything we taught and answer all her questions so she doesn't miss anthing.

So we still haven't seen Turumai or Maude this week until yesterday, so it's not looking good for the baptisms this saturday. They still want it, but it will just be pushed back.

Sam's baptism was great. It was him and another person that got baptised, someone the other elders taught. It was a great spiritual experience for everyone. Then after church on sunday bishop talked with Ailani*, his mom to give her a calling and help her to come back to church. Turns out she's not in the records, although her husband is, contrary to what we all thought before. She's ready though, nothing holding her back from being rebaptised.

That night, we visited the family. They all loved the feeling of being at church and seeing Sam get baptised. He was quite the example! Honestly, before I wondered if this little nine year old kid would just become inactive in a few months and this might be wasted effort, but that is definitely not true. That family is coming into the truth, and they will stay strong.

That was a good way to end Tautira, yes, I'm leaving. I didn't think two months here was very long, but I guess I'm needed elsewhere. Transfers have already happened, and right now I'm in Papehue at Paea. Yup, back to my first zone. My new companion is Elder Eperania, a Tahitian. On to  new adventure! I quickly said goodbye to everyone on sunday, and went on my way.

Anyway, That's the news for this week. The church is true, and it will bring anyone happiness in there lives. That's sure! I felt like a didn't do a whole lot in Tautira in those few months, but looking back, I can see that I at least helped a lot of people in little aspects of their lives. It's such a blessing to be a part of the Lord's work. Love you all!

Elder Lewis

1 Corinthians 13 and Moroni 7: Charity

Each week has started to go by so fast. I feel like we didn't really do much, but we must have done something! haha I'll try to make his week interesting.

Monday and Tuesday Elder Maltelour was sick so we stayed in. I got lots of studies in, that's for sure.

Lately we've only been teaching our core group of faithful investigators. The ones that miss out on a lesson during the week tend to slip away from our grasp. We haven''t officially dropped any investigators, but when you don't see them for a month, there's not much you can do about that. 

We've got a baptism happening this week! Things are looking good for Sam's baptism. We've been seeing him at the chapelle each week, and each time he says a prayer he thanks Heavenly Father for letting him get baptised.

We taught Nicolas and Giselle this week. I expected it to be a little tense from last week's fiasco, but it worked out really well. Elder Maltelour wanted to talk about the Law of Chastity, so that's what we did. Actually the spirit was really strong by the end. It wasn't a really powerful lesson or anything, but the spirit was there and I could tell that they felt it. They made us sushi, and at the end, Rehi, our DMP, shared the scriptures from 1 Corinthians 13 and Moroni 7 about charity, thanking them for having charity for us. That led to a little discussion on charity, inviting the spirit even more. Good way to end the lesson, and I think at least Nicolas is opening his heart more and more. We'll see what happens.

Things aren't looking great for the three baptisms on the 22nd. We haven't seen Turumai and Maude this week, and there are still a lot of important things to do before the baptism. With Lucas, the main problem is his family accepting, so we'll try tommake that work, but the date my be pushed a little.

Alright, that's about it for this week, and I have to go now, so faaitoito everyone!

Elder Lewis

Ups and Downs

Hey everyone! Here's the fun stuff of the week:

Last monday we did a hike in Papara. It was several hours long, had a great view, and we got some fe'i at the top. It was annoying though when we were half way down and I realized I had dropped my camera somewhere up there. We had to spend even longer going back up and finding my camera. Still worth it, though.

On tuesday, we went to visit Turumai. He wasn't home, but his copine was at the house across the street, hanging out with her member friend. We did a quick visit with her where she said she was ready to be baptised. Other missionaries had tried to set up their marriage, but she didn't think she was ready. Well, she's ready now. We set up her marriage and baptism for the same day as Tutea, the 22nd. We came back the next day, and found out that her friend was a really good member integrator. She had taught Maude*, Turumai's copine, how to pray, she taught her hymns, and they discuss the gospel all day long, from morning until evening. I feel like it was too easy for her to accept! 

We taught Nicolas and Giselle this week. We started talking about why they had such a strong faith in the bible, what made them start to believe, and they said some good stuff. We talked about how you need to ask God, without doubting, with faith, humility, real intent in order to know if it is the Word of God. We can receive the answer through the Spirit, who will tell us by feelings of love, peace, etc. Let me tell you, the spirit was strong. That's when I pulled out the Book of Mormon and read the verses from Moroni chapter ten. We engaged them to do exactly what they had done to find out if the Bible was true, and do it for the Book of Mormon. 

That's when Giselle quickly excused herself and came back with a stack of papers. She told us that she had actually done some research on the Book of Mormon. She had looked on the internet and found some stuff that "proved our religion false". Even she didn't understand why this stuff made the BoM false, be she was quick to believe this internet site. They both told us that they had actually known that our church was false for years, and they did that to prove it to us, not for them. To make a long story short (that lesson lasted about two and a half hours), they refused to ask God if the Book of Mormon was true. That's some heartbreaking stuff. The spirit was so strong, testifying of the truth, and they wouldn't even ask God, but stuck to an internet site to find the truth. That was so hard to have this spiritual couple flat out reject the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I'll admit, I was actually really angry at them for not understanding, for not trying to ask in faith to the Man who knows everything, loves us, and wants that we know the truth. Well anyway, at the end of the lesson, we ate dinner with them (which was pretty awkward), and invited us back next week to talk about just the bible. *sigh*. Well, no one ever said it would be easy.

Saturday and Sunday were great, I loved General Conference! Even if we had to wake up at five to be there on time. There were so many good talks, and I could quote them all, but here are a few cool quotes:

"When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation... and Jesus’s gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy. "-President Nelson

"I can promise you your prayers will be answered, and as you act on the answers you will receive, you will find joy in the Sabbath, and your heart will overflow with thankfulness."-President Eyring

"To abide in God’s love in this sense means to submit fully to His will. It means to accept His correction when needed. … It means to love and serve one another as Jesus has loved and served us. It means to learn “to abide the law of a celestial kingdom” so that we can “abide a celestial glory” -Elder Christofferson

 “If we love the Savior more, will we suffer less?”-Elder Hales

All of these quotes and more made me really think about how to be better and to appreciate more the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the Restored Gospel, and God's Plan for us. We are so blessed!

Have a good week!

Elder Lewis

Cool

Alright, We've finally started to get the work moving over here. There hasn't been much to report for the past few weeks, but I suppose fixing three baptisms is worth telling you about.

Sam- a nine year old kid who loves the missionaries (surout their bikes and helmets). He comes from a family where his parents used to be LDS. The last time the family came to church was five years ago to give their baby a blessing. He's getting baptised the fifteenth of Octobre.

Turumai*- he's been taking lessons for a while, but it's always hard to find him each time for a lesson. He's a young dad and his girlfriend wants to follow him. She hasn't started the lessons yet, but when she does, she'll get baptised too. The baptism is set for the 22 Octobre. He struggles with praying, reading the scriptures, going to church, etc, but we're working on that, and he should be ready by then.

Lucas*-20 years old, has taken the lessons already. I had actually tried to teach him but never actually met him until now. We were going to visit a mami, but he was there instead and invited us over. We just talked with him  and he revealed everything. He's really spiritual and he wanted to be baptised. He told us that we would fix the date the next day for his baptism, but in talking right there, we ended up fixing it for the 22 also. He's already been chased from home by his mother for wanting to get baptised, and he has nothing holding him back. Awesome!

There is also a family that we taught more than a month ago that was really potential, but it was always really hard to get the second lesson in. Well, we got that second lesson in yesterday, Plan of Salvation, and it was really good. This time it was just with Jeremie, but last time Manihi, his wife, was there too (I'm pretty sure I've talked about them already in a previous letter). They're really sincere, and they are definitely starting to believe. Hopefully the next lesson we'll be able to get them to commit. That will be the two parents and their two children. One of the children already reads the BoM all the time, it's great!

Still doing a lot of contacting, our amis don't like to stay amis very long. We've contacted quite a few this week, so I'll just tell you if anything interesting happens with them.

Okay, I have to go now, not much time. I know God lives, I know he loves us all. I know that each soul has great worth to God, and I know that I'm doing the Lord's work. Love you all!

Elder Lewis

The Gospel--Gotta Love It

Hey everyone!

Honestly, there's not much to report for these past few weeks. It's been quite the struggle to get things going here. We think we just found a really potential investigator and then the second lesson never happens. It's not that they don't actually want the lessons, it just doesn't happen. So we just do a lot of one time street lessons.

We found a family consisting of a father, an inactive mother, a nine year old boy, and a five year old boy. We're preparing Sam*, the nine-year-old, for baptism. The family wants to come back, and so far they've kept all our engagements of praying each day as a family and reading scriptures. The baptismal date for Sam* isn't fixed yet, but bientôt.

In our lessons with Nicolas and Giselle sometimes they choose the topic. We're not going to do that anymore. Here's why:

On Saturday we did a lesson with them, and the topic was "la parole de Dieu" and so he immediately opens up to Revelations 14 and starts talking about the meaning of the three angels in extreme detail. I don't know where they got that stuff from. They also started quoting Ellen White, and we didn't get a single word in. Next thing we know, they're talking about the devil's number and Giselle told us that it was talking about the pope. Apparently on his hat there are some words in Latin and if you take the letters and put them with roman numerals, you get the number. They pulled out some paper and showed us. Let's just say the spirit was not at all there. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to take control. Yeah...

Also, transfers have come and have taken Elder Murdock. He's been here for seven months, so it wasn't a surprise. My new companion is Elder Maltelour, who was also on Takaroa the same time I was (also the old comp of Elder Murdock). That will brake my streak of only having Utahn companions haha.

Anyway, not much else to say, so I'll leave you with a scripture:

"Et le Christ a dit: Si vous avez foi en moi, vous aurez le pouvoir de faire tout ce qui est utile en moi."

-moroni 7:33

All we need is faith and then we can do everything we need to do. Pretty simple. If we trust in God, we can't go wrong. I'm grateful for a loving, helping God that will always be there for me and that will support me despite my weaknesses. 

That's it for this week. à prochain!

Elder Lewis