Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

23 February 2015 Tiare

The well-traveled road to Tautira

My companion Elder Kokona and me on our bikes.
"Look Mom, no..." Ooppps, never mind!

This week you get a ton of pictures that I haven't been able to send for months. I hope you enjoy them.

Finally, you get to meet Teramai. She is in the red dress and her aunt is on the right.

I have started a study of flowers. Here are some of my favorites.

The iconic tiare Tahiti

 I've never seen so much "blue" in nature until I came here

Red flowers. The ones above are like little red Christmas trees.

Fresh fish! These are called "fish blue, fish red, fish yellow' and so on.

This is a taro field, ready to be harvested. Taro fields are pretty swampy.

This is tumu uru or breadfruit tree.

This is breadfruit. It's especially delicous with coconut milk and fried canned beef! 

The moon was so bright this night!

Transfers....

16 February 2015 Tautira

Well I did get transferred this week, but it wasn't before Elder Kokona and I fixed another baptism. I'm gonna be honest, we rocked it here. Anyways, when you're unified with your companion its really easy to drown people in the spirit. So I got transferred to Tiarei in the zone Mahina. I'm also one of the Zone Leaders of Mahina, so I'm pretty excited for that - our zone's gonna kill it! I get transferred at around 12, and in our new sector....we have a car! Woooooooooo :) and apparently the house is air conditioned. What more could I ask for? Anyways, I'm pretty excited, but there is a good chance that it will be my last secteur, so I'm gonna make it a good one! My companion's name is Elder Tematahotoa, and he loves doing sports, so we'll get along just fine :)

We have Julia's Baptism Friday, and since I'm still on Tahiti Elder Temata... and I are gonna drive down since its me baptising her. Pretty excited for that, it’s gonna be awesome. We were worried about Julia being able to stop smoking because she kept procrastinating and procrastinating. She was down to just 1-2 cigarettes a day, but it was still hard for her to not smoke. Then the day we had fixed for her to stop for good she said she had no more desire to smoke, it was completely gone; quite an amazing miracle for sure. She's awesome and she has a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon.

I feel pretty comfortable handing over the secteur to Elder Webber. Elder Kokonas progressed beaucoup, and we've got tons of lessons, and baptisms fixed until April. It’s always nice to go into a sector that’s "living".

This week in my studies I found Alma' law of restoration (see Alma 41, specifically Alma 41:15) in 1 Nephi 14. I was pretty happy since it seems to pop up everywhere, and I've kind of made it a hobby to search for it in all the prophet's writings.

Anyways have a wonderful week! Thank you for all your letters! Love you all!

Elder Molinari

ps. Pictures next week I hope, If the computer in Tiarei works :)

Editor’s Note: The following was added once he arrived at the new location, which is on the main island of Tahiti. It is on the northeast coast.

Later on 16 February 2015 Tiarei (near Faauanu)

Yes, I get to drive a car. The new house is still next to the ocean, and we have an air conditioner in our room. It’s a pretty nice house, it’s probably better than our old one. The bathroom is super nice as well. Our chapel only has one ward that meets in it...ours. Elder Kokona stays in Tautira. It’s probably better for him to stay a while in sectors because he is still a little lost. I really hope he and his new companion have a good time together. The elder that replaced me is named Elder Webber, he's really awesome and he already served with a Vanuatuan. Yeah, my sector is huge, but for once our ward actually works the way it’s supposed to. So I'm super excited. And now I get to go to the zone leader meetings with President Bize, sooooooo excited for those.

The Sun Has Come Out

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

Almost a Good Week!

2 February 2015 Tautira

This week started off pretty strong, and then I guess it kinda pushed me out of the way so to speak. I got a fever on Thursday, which then progressed to being really sick...again. We would have hit very close to the standards of excellence this week if I hadn't gone out. Sometimes I feel like I'm only working half weeks, oh wait, it’s because I am. Anyways, everything is going better now, I'm just super tired.

Teramai got up and bore her testimony on Sunday - I was so proud- can't even imagine how proud Heavenly Father was. She's just so awesome, and she's pretty feisty with her family when they try and attack her about being baptised. She’s not mechant or anything just feisty. It makes me laugh.

Anyways, I spent the extended weekend with Elder Lee the zone leader and the car, and elder Tago the other one came to our sector to keep going with Elder Kokona. (Elder Tago loves my sector) Anyways, apparently everyone couldn't stop asking where I was or what happened. Typical Tahitians, they don’t miss you until you’re gone ;) Speaking of being gone I think I've only got a couple weeks left here. Everyone is already telling me they don’t want me to go; it always makes you feel good/sad. We’ll see what happens.

Well, I don’t have much else to say...Still a little frazzled by the whole sick weekend thing.

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Molinari

Baptism of Teramai

26 January 2015 Tautira

Tautira village

Well, this week me semblais d'être mieux (just kidding). We had a good week. We were a little low on lessons, because I've been a little too long winded at lessons lately. It's a very Tahitian thing to talk for a long time. When I say talk I mean have long conversations. I think it comes from the fact that it’s very hard to say things in Tahitian without taking a long time. Anyways, I'm working to improve it.

Speaking of long winded, I'm not sure I've ever been to a baptism longer than the one we had Tuesday. It was about an hour and 45 minutes...that’s right over an HOUR. We had made the program, but at the last second so many people were added to give little testimonies :| so it was all changed without me knowing. Anyways, everyone was so excited that Teramai was being baptised that everyone who talked felt like they needed to share every experience they've ever lived with Teramai.

By the time the baptism happened we were all really antsy, or maybe it was just me ;) Anyways, it was dark, rainy, cold (well probably not that cold but when you've been in Tahiti for a while it was cold) and after 8:00 when we finally went into the font to do the baptism. I got to do it in Tahitian. It was incredible, to say the least. When the prayer started "no te mana i tuuhia mai ia u i Iesu Mesia..." it was like everyone took a breath and stepped back. Probably one of the most powerful baptismal services I've ever assisted. Her testimony was even better. She got up and started quoting scriptures from the Book of Mormon like she's been a member for years. All the other members that came were shocked, but like Sister Molinari said this week, that's just what happens when we READ THE SCRIPTURES. Anyways, it was a nice service, even though it was the longest the world has ever seen.

What else happened...? It rains ALL the time here. I'm on the rainy side of the presque île. It’s like the Rochester New York of Tahiti. I don't have much else to say. Fixed some more baptisms this week. I'm astonished by the fact that this is Week 9 of Elder Kokona's training. Meaning there’re only 3 weeks left after this week. Feels like we just started! Maybe I'll be leaving soon, who knows? This week I passed 18months on mission, almost to the big twenty.

Spiritual thought: I really like the thesis of 1st Nephi. Nephi shares it in 1 Nephi chapter one, verse 20. Try and find what it is.

Love you all and have a good week.

Weird Week

19 January 2015, Tautira

Well since Chikungunya stays in your system for 6 months or more I "got it" again this week; and even when you don't have it, its like your biking with arthritis. SO FRUSTRATED. Ok, now that the venting is out we can continue.

Teramai's baptism is tomorrow, we're all pretty excited for it, good way to start of the year for the ward, first month with a baptism. Anyways, Teramai is so awesome, and shes SO ready. Which means that the baptism is going to be a powerful spiritual experience for her and everyone else there.

I'm not really sure what to write... Feels like I've been here in Tautira forever, but I think its one of my favorite sectors. Oh yeah! We went to the temple on Tuesday. We drove ALL the way there, and then they told us the session was full...and it was the last one. We were with the Zone leaders and Elders of Toahotu. 

All in all we thought it was going to be a pretty anticlimactic visit to the temple. The first Lady that talked to us just told us that it was full, and that we'd have to come back another day. But as a missionary you don't "come back another day", you've got one shot and if you miss it you wait another 2 months til its your turn again. Well as we were about to go an old Tahitian man comes up and says he'll go talk to the temple president, then guess what they did? They organized an extra session for us :) It was super nice of them, and we were so grateful. Just a great illustration of how Tahitians are very tilted towards the "spirit of the law" side if you know what I mean.

Well have a nice week, love you all.

Elder Molinari

Last Week of This Transfer

12 January 2015 Tautira

Well, this week was spent mostly at the house because Elder Kokona was confined to his bed. Thursday we did a split so we could do some of our lessons, so Elder Kokona went to Toahotu, and Elder Peterson (my comp. from Bora) came over and we worked for a few days so the week wasn't totally lost.

So...I don't have too much to share. Maybe some insights? I did a study not too long ago being poor in heart vs. having a broken/contrite heart. With the infusion of a little Alma 42 doctrine I came to the conclusion the two are actually Meekness, and penitence. Meekness being the ability to submit to trails and unjustness, and penitence being a fervent desire to repent when noticing one's defaults or if they are pointed out. This week I was doing a little studying and I've come to the conclusion that the two, meekness and penitence, are what makes up humility. So humility, true humility, is the capacity to take trials, and a desire to change and repent. (Alma 42:24)

Also I've really enjoyed the counsel that Alma gave to his son Shiblon in Alma 38. Not only does he give a clear and concise testimony of the Savior in verse 9 (quoting 2 Nephi 31:21 might I add), but the counsel he gives in verses 10-12 I find particularly applicable to myself. All this week I've been meditating on the verse 11 and above all 12. Let us all try to apply this counsel in our daily lives to be truly humble.

Well, I've got nothing left to say. Next week!

Elder Molinari