Ia ora na!
And I muster that enthusiastic ia ora na with all my faith
because the chikengunya has claimed another victim... I've bitten the dust. It
started Thursday when I started noticing a weird rash on my arms, and later
that night my chest, elbows and knees started to tighten up. No surprise Friday
I was in bed all day with a gnarly fever. But I do say that the Lord has been
merciful and the fever only lasted about a day an a half, so I was able to work
the last part of Saturday and all Sunday! I still have a rash all over my body
and minor pains in my joints, but I'm coming along fine.
In spite of that, Elder Duncan and I had a great week with
plenty of biking. Something I could also explain is that, like I said in an
earlier email, that our area is the entire east side of the island. Now where
do we live? On the middle of the west coast of the island. So everyday Elder
Duncan and I bike for about 30 minutes to get to our area, then proselyte in
our area which takes about an hour to get all the way through. It's the price
to pay for having the most naturally beautiful side of the island! Even more,
on Tuesday, it was raining buuuckets. We got out there on our bikes and we were
so stoked to go biking through a monsoon for hours! And I'm not joking. Whether
rain or shine, Bora Bora is still a beauty. For the moment we'll be biking a
lot until we find that new house that we're looking for on the other side of
the island.
Also, remember those blessings that I talked about last
week, that we gave to people with the Chikengunya? We came back to see them
this week, and it turns out that they were all completely healed the day after
the blessing. One of these people, named I---, is an investigator, and has
been being prepared little by little to receive the Gospel. She once assisted a
family night in Raiatea a couple months ago, loved it and has nurtured
questions about the Church ever since. She lives with an inactive family member
named D-----, and it's through her that we came into contact with Isaora. Now
after the blessing, I---is even more interested and now we're doing the
lessons with her and her partner S----, who is awesome. He's a rugby player,
and a super humble guy. Such a cool couple.
Finally last weekend, we met an investigator named K----
and her partner C---- at a new ward activity. K---- took lessons from the
other missionaries before the ward boundary changes, and now she is in our
ward. She has a strong desire to be baptized! And she's pretty ready, the only
thing that's blocking her is her partner C----. At the time that the other
elders taught her, C---- was kind of against her being baptized and did a
few things to show it (burning her Book of Mormon, threatening to kill the
missionaries, just minor things like that) and we had the blessing to meet him
at this activity. Super nice guy! We invited them to church the next day, and
for the first time for both of them, they came! We did a lesson with them this
week as well, in which C---- said that in the following year he was going
to quit alcohol and join the church. I don't know what happened between back
then and now, but I'm so dang thankful that it did because it prepared C---- to receive the Gospel!
So in spite of the sickness, we were able to accomplish good
things this week. The Lord is merciful unto those who are penitent and seek his
help. We're excited for this next week when we'll be back into good health to
preach the good word. Here's a photo with me and Elder Duncan. Love you all,
have a great week!
Elder Ball
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