Monday, December 8, 2014

When chikungunyah attacks (Bora Bora - week #8)

Ia ora na!

A quick week went by like that, and with the new ward all set up we have had tons of work to do this past week. I don't have too much time to write, but I'll try to put in as much awesomeness as possible. 

First of all, new companion! And he's very new. his name is Elder Duncan from Cache Valley, Utah. He turned 18 about 5 months ago, so he's just about as fresh of an elder as you can get! He's way cool, and he actually plays guitar in a band! Already we have some cool things in common, and already from this week I can see that he has a very solid understanding of the gospel and he teaches very well. The only thing that's blocking him is the language barrier of course. It reminds me my own training, when I couldn't understand the difference between French and Tahitian. But he's a trooper and he's been smiling the whole time. And he ate fafaru his first night. What a stud! I hope that by the end of his training his skills will exceed my own and that he'll be "duncan" people left and right in the waters of baptism. Hahaha props to Elder Larsen for that joke. 

So yeah, the new ward. The members here are insanely motivated to get that chapel filled up again. In all honesty we didn't have many investigators or lessons in our area at the beginning of the week, since we gave all the other investigators to the Vaitape ward. So we really had to seek inspiration for things to do this week. With nothing fixed but at least with plans we made, Elder Duncan and I went out to bike to our sector. Then when we get there, we get a call from an inactive member to give blessings to her and her sick nonmember family, or a member calls us wanting to take us to see other inactive members, calls like that just raining down from heaven! So we were blessed with chances to work with the members and have productive things to do this week. We can already see the unity in the ward and their desire to hasten the Lord's work. 

And speaking of blessings... a new sickness has been sweeping French Polynesia. It's called chikungunyah. When we first heard about that sickness, Elder Gilson said "What? Chicken ganja?" haha so chicken ganja has attacked the islands. It first hit Tahiti, and it's been about a month that its been sweeping from home to home over there. But just this past week or so, its hit Bora. What it is, it's this sickness from Africa or something. It starts with a headache and a mild fever, but in a matter of hours you're on your bed with thick pains in every joint of your body, with a rash from head to toe and a wicked fever, and it takes you out for about a week. It's a sickness carried by mosquitoes. And this whole week we've been giving blessings to people everywhere who have this sickness. It seems painful, but it doesn't seem too life threatening. We've been protected, and not just by Off, but by angels, because man it seems like everybody is sick. Elder Hansen got the sickness last night, but we gave him a blessing and today he's back on his bike. The Lord cant afford to lose his servants for a week in this critical moment on Bora. We'll see if any of us get it this next week.

That's all I got time for, and we're stoked for the weeks to come. I love you all, have a great week!


Elder Ball

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