Papeete Tahiti Mission: At Last (Tubuai

Ia ora na!

Well it was a great week to say the least! Some great teaching moments, learning experiences and a baptism.

This weekind Tatu was baptized. It was such a cool experience for me and Elder Firuu, and it was a great day for Tatu. It was also pretty cool being the one who performed the ordinance, actually using the Priesthood of God to bring Tatu into the Church and to make covenants. The baptism... well, let’s just say that it got done. Haha, it’s true, it took me three times to get it right. What can I say, it’s the first baptism I’ve ever done! The first time I didn’t say the prayer right (in Tahitian) and the second time I didn’t get him all the way under. Third times the charm right? But I felt pretty bad for Tatu, that water was cold in the font. But he said it was all good and that he felt totally clean and pure. So, despite Elder Ball who messed up, it was a great moment, the Spirit was strong and truly testified.

We had some awesome moments with the F family this week. Right now they want to get baptized, but they really do not want to pick a date yet. Nonetheless we’ve been able to see just how much they have been prepared by the Lord for us. After a lesson, H, F's wife, told us an experience a few years back when she talked to her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law said that soon, the "maitai" (the good) would come to their door, and that it would be a difficult but life changing "maitai". She said that after thinking and praying, she felt strongly that we were the "maitai" and that these were the things that Heavenly Father wants her and her family to do. Man, was that crazy to hear. I know for a fact that this family will choose to follow Jesus Christ and join this Church whether I’m here to see it or not. They have some difficulties to overcome, such as opposition from outside family, but I know they will get there, and as missionaries Elder Firuu and I are going to do everything we can to help them.

We found some other cool investigators as well. Rohiti is a teenage girl our age who hates Tubuai. Haha shes here to help her family with work, a little store on the side of the road, and she hates it because there aren’t very many people her age since they are all at Tahiti for school. One day Elder Firuu and I stopped by to buy some ice cream, and we chatted with her a little bit about the Gospel. She said she was interested, since she doesn’t have much else to do, so a few days later we shared a message on God and prayer with her . She said she was touched by the lesson, and wanted to learn more. So in the coming week we'll have more lessons with her. Just a cool little experience in "opening our mouths" to share the Gospel.

Its been a good week. Something we need to work on is to really engage and commit our investigators. Sometimes its easy to be a pushover and not ask our investigators right away, but the thing is for the investigators to really progress, they gotta step out of their comfort zone. And to help them do that we as missionaries have to be bold and confident in asking them to do these things that are essential in helping them come unto Christ. Something that we've been really working on this week, and I can testify that boldness through testimony and comittment are a powerful tool, if used correctly.

That’s what I’ve got for this week! Some pics:
1. Tatu! all set and looking studly for the baptism. (see above)

2. Doin hikes on P-day, fun stuff.