Ia ora na tatou!
It's been a fantastic week for
Elder Tera and I. Some good small miracles that have happened here and there!
First and foremost to talk about was the miracle or Aranui's baptism! At last!
Aranui is the radio host that we have been teaching ever since I got here to
Vairao. He's such a humble, shy guy, and he had a hard time understanding many
of the principles of he Gospel that we taught, so it took slow, careful and
patient teaching. But with the Lord's help, his life has been blessed. Not too
long ago, his mother passed away, and that was a trial that took its toll on
him. One day while reading the Book of Mormon, the Holy Ghost confirmed that
what he was reading was true, and he felt a calm come over him. His mother came
to his mind during this experience, and he felt the impression that his mother
lived on and was watching over him. Since this experience, he has wanted to be
baptized, but opposition from the rest of his family held him back, until
finally after many prayers his family decided to support him in his decision.
On Friday, the baptismal service took place, and when he came up out of the
water i couldn't stop smiling! At the end of the service he bore a simple
testimony of his experiences in learning the gospel, and he asked humbly that
the members help him accomplish the ordinances for his parents. It was a
beautiful night!
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| Elder Clark, Frere Teaue, Aranui, Elder Larsen, moi, Elder Tera, and Tati! |
We also started the lessons
with an investigator who came to the temple. Her name is T------, and she is
the sister in law of one of our ward missionaries. Shes 16 years old, and shes
already prepared to be baptized. About a year ago, her member cousin came to
stay with them and spent some good time sharing the gospel with the family. He
taught them about the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation and everything. Then
he left, and no follow up was made! What?? So basically for a year T----- has
been reading the Book of Mormon, and she already knows that its all true! She
even keeps the commandments, and is just super righteous. Yet, she says that
shes not ready for baptism and doesn't want to fix a date... she hasn't admitted
it, but we believe that it could be the her parents who don't want her to be
baptized. We've had some awesome lessons with her this week, and we definitely
realize that its definitely about time that the Lord sent us to help her make
the decision now.
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| Me and our humble Toyota pickup. We get anywhere together. |
Another small experience, while
one of our lessons were cancelled, we felt the impression to go visit an old
investigator. She ended up not being there, but we met and talked with her
grandson. It was hilarious, we introduced ourselves, and then he said
"ohh, so it was you guys that I saw on TV Monday night, at the Billabong
Pro!" Heh, yeah that was us I guess.This guy is the bomb! He talked to us
how he doesn't belong to a religion, but he believes firmly in God and prays
every day. He doesn't smoke or drink, and he and a group of friends basically
pass their time talking about God and encouraging other youth in the
neighborhood to stop smoking and drinking. We basically told him that that's
exactly what we do, but we do it in all of Polynesia, and that he could become
a missionary too if he listened to our message. He was down, we'll be seeing
him this week! I feel that the Spirit truly led us towards this young man. I
hope he'll accept us!
 |
| Me killing Elder Tera |
Like I said, it was a fantastic
week, but it ended bittersweet. I said goodbye to, or "killed", my
companion, Elder Tera, since he finished his mission in time to head over to
France to go to school. I loved Elder Tera, we were two guys with pretty
similar tastes, and he's one of my best buddies. I'll miss him for sure! But, I'm
happy to be with my new companion Elder Millett! He's from Seattle, and I don't
think I'll ever have a dull moment with him. Hes very enthusiastic and a real
jokester, and a solid worker at that. Life will be good with him.
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| A pretty sweet photo that a member found for us on Tahiti's news website. Model status. |
I love you all! Have a great
week.
Elder Ball
http://mormon.org
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