Well this week wasn't too bad. We got more new investigators. Elder Tau, the traveling trainer, was only with us for maybe 4 days? He's pretty awesome; he’s from Tubuai, so he’s pretty quiet but really nice.
One of our new investigators is a Mami (ed note: a grandma or elder woman) that always chased away the missionaries. Maybe it’s the white boy speaking Tahitian approach that works so well. I guess we will never know. She was actually a reference from a member, and everyone is always shocked that we are teaching her. She speaks really clear Tahitian so my comprehension is enough to get by easily with her, luckily we have the spirit to help us understand and speak.
Elder Smith and I are doing a personal purification plan right now. We made a list of all the things that we wanted to change and little habits we want to eliminate. Then we started with a fast, and then make a covenant to do your best to stop or start doing the things you put down. This goes for 40 days. At the end the promise is you will have a renewed spiritual strength and power. So we are a few days in and I've noticed a difference already, it’s really nice.
This sector is quite interesting, it makes you really appreciate finding a person to teach, as well as every teaching experience that you have. The other side however, is that it is crushing when a reference falls through or someone doesn't want to take the lessons anymore.
The one thing I have noticed about the mission in Tahiti is you work soooo close to church leadership. You pretty much see how a ward functions - or how a ward needs to function. If you are a Zone leader you work closely with stake leadership. It’s pretty crazy. The missionaries play an intrinsic role in planning and development of activities, programs, and who knows what else - the piano. You really see how the mission is quite a training experience. I don’t know how often you work with leadership in other missions but that’s like all you do here.
We've hit the 7 week mark of Elder Smith’s Formation, he's pretty awesome. We're pushing on, every day we do the chase for new people to teach :)
I can’t believe it’s almost June already, the mission just kind of slips by without you even realizing. I can’t believe the year mark is only a few months away. Yikes.
I really liked the thoughts about teaching and discussions that you shared the other week, I applied them this week in my class at church and the investigators actually started talking. It was great, I tried to get some questions out that create an environment for a discussion, and it worked out pretty well. I didn't even get close to finishing the lesson. I really needed that thought because my actual lessons were becoming a bit drab as well :|
My spiritual thought comes from Alma 5:14 and 19. What’s the difference between the two verses? I’ll give you a hint, it has to do with the faces.
Ok, I love you all!
Elder Molinari
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| They are ancient carvings. These pics are from Elder Smith's camera |
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| Here are a couple of Tiki that are taller than me. |
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| This is a drawing I did while waiting for Elder Smith to email. Not quite the same as the Tiki men. |
