Editor's note: I left the French words in tact. We will expect more and more as time goes by.
Well this week has been great! I have a new companion, His name is Elder Tumarae. Hes from the island Tupai dans les australes. He is so awesome, we are getting so much work done already, yesterday we had 11 amis de meglise assist chapelle and 6 inactive members! He served in the Tuamotus in the Motu hau, that might be the spelling. I've got a picture of him attached, i think the lord is giving me a break, you made it through the first one, learned a lot, now its time to get to work. The only way I can describe him is like a Tahitian version of Fritz Jung. So its ben awsome.
I hit that mark with the language where i can say probably 90 percent of what i want to and understand pretty much what everyone is saying. I've had a LOT of help from the big man though, the gift of tongues is real. Elder Tumarae is shocked with how well I speak and understand French. The first few days I was kind of <> because I had to show him around and introduce him to everyone. He was like well you manage yourself pretty well, you'll probably be a trainer next. That made me a little nervous, but whatever I have the Lords help with everything I do so it cant be too bad. My new Tahitian companion actually speaks Tahitian, so now I can begin to actually learn how to speak Tahitian like a Tahitian!
I don't really know what else to say. Oh! We had a family night for our quartier, what they call a neighborhood, and it went...ok. The lesson was on the plan du salvation and we tried to get through the whole thing but there was a minister there, and other people that all they wanted to do was invite a spirit of contention. Elder Tumarae did a pretty good job though he took all the questions, and addressed them by continuing to teach the lesson. It took way too long though. In the end I bore a powerful testimony of the truth of the plan of salvation in Tahitian and french, and of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Elder Tumarae did the same thing and challenged everyone there to pray for the truth of the message. Everyone was silent after that. I think they were just annoyed by the fact that we have the answers to the 3 deepest questions a man can ask. Where do we come from. What is our purpose on the Earth. And Where are we going after. I'm very grateful we have a prophet and modern day scripture that leads this Church so we aren't wandering around in the spiritual darkness of Lehi's dream!
Also whenever you are in a situation like that, just bear testimony and share a scripture in the Livre de Mormon. There's no point in arguing with someone that doesn't care to learn. Even if you look like a fool for not arguing back or trying to prove your point. You don't have to prove anything. The spirit does that for you, IF they have open hearts and willing spirits.
I don't have Kirstin's Email ask her to email me? Also she should be kind of settled in now. Japanese is a hard language, my advice is memorize an enormous amount of useful verbs first. Verbs are powerful, they let you say things, the rest of the vocab can come after the verbs. That's how I did french and Tahitian. Also, remind her the cinnamon granola by the food line in the corner near the drinks is excellent and I ate it for almost every meal for 7 weeks.
For you guys: Elder Chailloux got transferred on Wednesday i think? He wrote me a letter before he left. Thanking me for the things I said and my example. He said he learned a lot, and was going to turn over a new leaf. There was a lot of other really nice stuff in the letter too, Im pretty sure it was sincere. If so I accomplished my first Mission Trial woooooooooooo. Lots more to come, and if that was the first one, my goodness pray for me. He cant take away the eye twitch eye developed though...maybe it will go away with elder tumarae. Elder Tumarae is almost the opposite of elder Chailloix, I think the Lord is giving me a little break before it gets hard again!
we are approaching the hot point of the year here. Its starting to feel like the one year at pageant, and when there is no Wind it feels like we are in an oven! its alright though because its better than being freezing cold! It also is the rainy season, randomly we will get these super heavy rain storms, we can usually find shelter.
I cant believe Christmas is almost here. I was with elder Twede and elder Franco in Fareatai when we realized it was Thanksgiving. So we went out with a machete and went on a coconut/ fruit gathering spree and had a Thanksgiving feast! It was fun. I'm very thankful for my sectuer, it may be large, but there are no nearly as many hills and black flies as in elder Franco's zone!
Oh I want you to Watch a movie on Netflix i think. Its called Departures, its a Japanese film live action about a man who takes up a job as a Japanese undertaker. It really shows you some of the customs of japan, and a bit of the people, and the music is cello music and absolutely excellent! The music is by Joe Hisaishi, the composer that does the music for Hiao Miyazakis films. Watch it, it was a fabulous film. lots of good morals.
The little music player and that speaker along with prayer is what really got me through this month i don't know what i would have done without music. I got all the songs on my USB from the Zone leaders i now have close to 450 songs including tons of Phil Collins! Love his voice! Our mission president's Policy with music is if it makes you feel the spirit go ahead. So I now have lots of Disney and other songs. It's great!
