I want to write a lot but I feel really lazy...we'll see what happens.
(Editor’s note: Sorry for the late post. I guess I was “feeling lazy” too or just very busy!)
This week went well, we hit our goal of 20 contacts at the end of the week, and we even hit our goal of 4 new investigators. It was pretty awesome.
We went to a house with a lady named Moea for the 5th time maybe and she was finally there again, what was even better was her husband was there as well. He was drinking but he wasn’t drunk yet and he invited us over. Elder Peterson and I had made a goal to take every opportunity to do lessons, so instead of trying to fix a time to come back we decided to do a lesson right there. It went pretty well, and she even told us that her neighbor wanted to see us. So after the lesson we went across the tiny dirt path to the other house and called hello.
We were greeted by Ramond, she’s probably in her 50's and she said she wasn’t against having us over. So we asked if we could share a message again and she said yes so we went in. In fact she told us the Moea had been there, one of the times we had passed - she was just hiding in the house. Ramond told her that you shouldn’t do that to missionaries because like the Bible says they light be angels in disguise (little do they know we actually are angels - read the bible dictionary:]).
This lady was really awesome, she’s already had the missionaries once before, but is a little held up by that fact that she is adventist. However, she shared some pretty interesting things with us. She says she doesn’t talk at Church anymore because when she asks question- or thinks outside of the box- she starts an argument. Alors, she told us she now sits silently at church and doesn’t talk. She even said she was confused why if God only speaks truth, and if the Bible contains the truth, why are there so many churches? Her pastor (not sure what they have at the adventist church) said it’s the same God, just worshipped different ways. She didn’t buy it because she said you can’t interpret truth, there is only truth.
She’s super ready; even if she told us she will stay adventist. All we need to do is get her to pray and receive a confirmation of the truth....we'll see how that goes this week. What was even cooler about the lesson is that she was speaking this fluent blend of Tahitian and French and Elder Peterson and I understood it all. It was incredible. So just like that we had 3 new amis and we got our goal of 4 new amis this week.
It was a good time. Unluckily, my camera died because I forgot to charge it the night before.
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| President and Sister Bize et moi |
He also made many changes in the leadership of the mission. There is a hierarchy now, because he said there were too many fresh missionaries as Leaders when they still need to be trained. Also, only the most obedient missionaries, as well as missionaries that have been out for a while will be leaders/trainers/island missionaries. This means as well that A DZ must pass by DL, and he said only "older" DZ/DL's will be trainers. (Ed. note: DZ = zone leader and DL = district leader. A zone is made up of multiple districts. A district is a collection of missionary companionships. These are typically designated geographically.)
These changes are going to eliminate lots of problems I think, especially inadequate trainers.
I REALLY like his style.
Plus, he did a meeting just for us to discuss the problems in the ward. We could tell all the problems without being criticized for "complaining" for once. Then they wanted to personally see the house to make sure it was safe and up to date.
Overall from the visit I got the impression that they really worry about us, and that our feelings are their most important priority. It was great.
ummm...Have a great week. I'll try to send pictures later!
Love you all a ton!
Elder Molinari
