9 February 2015 Tautira
...well, intermittently at the very least. I'm feeling loads better this week. I should have complained a long time ago, because I feel like a Tahitian God after taking all those antibiotics. In fact I've felt better this week than I have in a loooong time. The antibiotics probably killed more than just my sinus infection.
Transfer calls will be this week, and I've resigned myself to the fact that I will probably be leaving my lost corner of Tahitian paradise. It's sad because its been so long here (5 transfers, ed. note: 30 weeks) that I feel completely at home here. Our house by the ocean literally is like home for me. De plus, I'm surrounded by all sorts of people who are my family. It'll be sad if I go. Transfers are the 15th and the 16th, which also means I will miss Julia's baptism the 20th. We've been working a loooong time with Julia, and her progress has been incredible, it will be terrible if I don't get to see her baptised. But, if I'm still on Tahiti...ROAD TRIP.
Teramai gave us a reference to go see, a young couple that live not too far from her. We went to go see them. I always like tracting with a name, it makes everything so much easier, even if the person has absolutely NO idea how you got their name. Sometimes people's expressions are funny. Anyways the name was Ariimoana (just an interesting side note that name is clearly to me a male name, but I realised its just Tahitian to you guys ;] ) his girlfriends name is Ariihee, and she was the one that came out to greet us.
She didn't seem to have any question as to what we were doing, or who we were - which was odd. So I asked if she knew the missionaries, to which she responded yes, in fact she's from Huahine à fare, and she practically grew up with her extended family who are all members! Then the mami came out with that, "what are these two guys doing at my house in the middle of nowhere." Talk Tahitian for a little bit, all pretenses are dropped, and we had a wonderful discussion after. Turns out that she was shocked by Teramai's baptism, and was thinking about looking at other religions. Luckily we came in the nick of time. Then we invited all of them to Church on Sunday, and they all came yesterday, and had a fabulous time. I think they came with Teramai...not sure.
Spiritual thought...what on Earth did I study this week...I picked up this folder somewhere during my mission full of talks by general authorities at BYU devotionals from the 1950's till the early 2000's. So I've been listening to a lot of them. Lots of them talk about one thing, the atonement. So it's inspired me to collect and write all my atonement knowledge in a notebook, with all my favorite scriptures and passages in the Book of Mormon.
Then it was the missionary program Sunday, and Elder Kokona was talking about missionary work, so I thought I'd talk about our message for the world, the atonement. It was a pretty awesome talk, I felt the spirit pretty strong as I was speaking, all I did was expound on passages in the Book of Mormon on the atonement, but it was like I was speaking with the hammer of doctrine. I don't really know how to explain it, but it was definitely one of my most powerful experiences with public speaking.
Anyways, I talked about the need for the atonement, and what would happen if we didn't have it, and first I talked a little about what it is. In French the word is expiation, which comes from the French verb expier, which means to atone, or reconcile. The passages I shared if you want to read them were, 2 Nephi 11:6-7; 2 Nephi 9:6-10, 24-25; Mosiah 3:17,19; Ether 3:14.
Have a great week, love you all.
Orometua Molinari
Red flowers. The ones above are like little red Christmas trees.
