Haere maru, haere papu (Week #9 in Papeete Pirae 2)

Bonjour mes amis!

After much toil under the Tahiti sun, things are lookin up!

Elder Martinson and I were able to fill our schedule up this week with some inactive lessons and good service projects. The inactive lesson were pretty awesome, a lot of these people have been inactive for a super long time and had forgotten most of the Gospel, so we got to testify of the restoration and the Book of Mormon quite a bunch, which is absolutely my favorite thing to teach! The Spirit was strong many a time, and it was awesome to see their face light up as they remembered why they were a member to begin with.

We had a couple of service projects this week, and they were both helping the cement walls of a house. Not easy work, especially when the cement mixer breaks and we gotta do i manually with a shovel! It was super funny though, because at one point Elder Martinson and I put all the water, gravel and cement into the mixer, and we thought we locked it into place (because it pivots from side to side)... but I guess it slipped or something. So I was just about ready to head over and eat a bit when I felt cement all over my foot... and I looked and the cement mixer had tipped over and spilled the cement all over the ground. Elder Martinson looked at me and said "what did you do?!" and I said back "no, what did YOU do?!" We had to hurry and shovel it all back into the mixer before it dried right there on the ground. All the other guys were teasing us, saying "you white boys..." yeah, pretty funny story.

All in all, these inactive lessons and service projects got us in contact with some potential investigators. We've talked to them a little about our message, and they were pretty interested. So we've planted the seed, no we just gotta water it and make it grow, we got hopes for next week! Also another great milestone: Ruta came to church yesterday! we were stoked beyond all belief, and she really loved it. We're gonna try to fix a date for baptism this next week. Things are looking good for her despite opposition from her Grandpa.

Aside from the work, its starting to gradually get more and more hot, and more and more humid at that... Its making biking up all the hills a little more difficult! On Saturday, it was super humid, more humid than usual. Those are the perfect conditions for these flying bugs called manumanu to come out and start mating I guess. So that night, these bugs were swarming all over the place; the air was literally thick with them. We were riding our bikes, and I'm pretty sure I opened my mouth for one second and like 5 bugs flew into my mouth. When we got back to the house, there were bugs crawling all up in our shirts and our pockets. It was gnarly, and it'll probably happen again.

The work is slowly starting to pick up, it looks like. The members are getting a little more motivated to do missionary work. The bishop has been really emphasizing it lately, so that's great for us. The DMP has been sick for the last two weeks though, so we haven't had a whole lot of help from him unfortunately.

A Tahitian saying that has helped me chill out a little and not stress is "haere maru, haere papu." It means go slowly, go surely, in other words chill out. Its like it says Mosiah 4:27, "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and ^aorder; for it is not requisite that a man should run ^bfaster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order." Its still possible to be smart and take it easy a little as to not burn out, but still be diligent. Something good to think about.

That's about it for the week. I love you all, I will do all that I can to bring good news next week!

Ua here au ia outou,

Elder Ball

In the Lord's hands (Week #8 in Papeete Pirae 2)

Ia ora na ia outou!

Alrighty, I'm not really sure where to start off. I guess ill just say that this week wasn't much better than last week. In fact it was worse! But my attitude has changed. Ive felt better, and kind of different this week I guess you could say.

First of all, things aren't good with investigators right now. We lost our only fixed baptism, Vaitiare. She decided to split up with her fiance, and she moved back home with her parents about half an hour south, in Paea. She did it all without telling us too, so we were kinda surprised when we heard about it from her would have been in-laws at Church yesterday. The good thing is, she's not in concubinage anymore! Sad thing is, shes not in our area anymore. We haven't been able to get a hold of her yet, but were hoping that shes still clinging to the gospel and the desire to be baptised.

Ruta, Orama and Lani aren't looking so great either. The fear of being rejected by their Protestant families is starting to take hold of them. Its hard, were gonna keep doing our best with them and help encourage them to press forward. Not a whole lot of opportunities to meet with them this week.

Julie and William ducked out too. Turns out they were in it just to use the church gym for their reception. Apparently bishop made a deal with them that if they wanted to use the gym, they had to take lessons with us. So we taught em twice, and we taught them the truth. We were just kind of thrown in an awkward situation.

Still no sign of Tehaunui, we haven't been able to find him all week.

So after all that, I guess you could say were at square one. On the bright side, we cant get much lower than we can now! But in all honesty, its hard. Its so hard to lose investigators like this. So this next week, its mostly concentrating on Ruta Orama and Lani and the rest is just searching and motivating the members to help find people.

This week, Ive had a lot of time to think and to study. I realized that I'm out here on a mission to do the Lords work. This isn't my work, its his, so I gotta submit myself to him and just do my best. I remembered that before the mission I wanted to be tested and stretched more than I ever have before, more than any crazy school exam or any water polo game or whatever. And Heavenly Father is certainly making that a guarantee right now; this mission is the hardest thing I've ever done so far. So I've been praying super hard, acknowledging that this is definitely some hard stuff and that I'm being tested and getting what I wanted, all the while submitting myself to the difficulty and asking Heavenly Father for His help. Its been a faith-building, patience-growing week for me, and I'm positive that it won't stop there.

So I'm still pretty content, and growing more and more headstrong. Its hard to say it, but I really do love this work. Despite the difficulty, I would rather be here than anywhere else right now, because I feel the influence of the Holy Ghost every day, and that is something that I would never give up.

I love you all! Just some pics: me posing like an idiot in front of our house, Elder Martinson and I, Eugene the crazy homeless guy who does our yard work for free and who sleeps behind the chapel, a poisonous centipede on my arm, and a sweet view from the 'hood of Nahoata.

Peace out! Still livin life, keep the faith!

A faaitoio,

Elder Ball

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Tahiti Papeete Mission

Elder Ball, Casey 

B.P. 93

Papeete, Tahiti 98713

French Polynesia

Feelin' the burn (Week #7 in Papeete Pirae 2)

Ia ora na ia outou!

Alrighty, like it says in the subject of the email, things are gettin hot and we're starting to feel the burn, physically and mentally. First physically: i kinda got a sunburn, my first one here. And by kinda a mean pretty gnarly. I can explain Mom, we were playing rugby on P day at our usual time, 3 o'clock. I never put sunscreen on cuz its pretty late, but there was something different that day. It was hot, wayy hot, and the sun was cookin. So that night before I realize it I'm totally cooked, my face was completely roasted. But it turned out nice, kinda faded into a nice tan. So I wont complain! But ill learn from that experience... ça faisait mal.

The work is still slow as well. We've worked our absolute hardest this week. We went on splits with members visiting every inactive member and every old investigator. There were two inactives who accepted a lesson and came to Church. Everyone else has no interest of coming back, or they're just incredibly lazy. I can't believe they think they can't come back cuz they "don't have any shoes" or cuz they "don't have a wife"... excuses excuses, But as frustrating as it is, I could never have real malice or dislike for these people. I love em all, their so incredibly chill and nice it's ridiculous. They just need a little kick in the pants to get em moving.

Investigator lessons have been a mixed bag. Tehaunui and Vaitiare have been gone every time we tried to come over, and they wont answer their phones so we dont know what's up. But the three new women we found two weeks ago are doin awesome! Corine hasn't been there this past week, but another friend, named Ruta, joined in the lessons with Orama and Lani. She actually took the lessons before, but ducked out of the baptism last minute because she was scared to offend her family. But we committed them to baptism this week and they're starting to read the Book of Mormon. We can see that Ruta is really starting to feel what she felt before, and that's so sweet. We found a good member friend for them too, and they all hit it off well. Things are lookin awesome for them.

Other than those lessons, not very many investigators who progress. Not many investigators in general I guess! I won't lie, this week was tough for me. I've been studying so hard and working so hard to understand these languages and doing my best to teach and Elder Martinson and I have been rollin everywhere to find people, and by last night I was just wiped out. This P day could have come a little faster! All the other Elders were telling me to just relax and have faith that things would get better, and to be patient. Patience is definitely not my strength, I would be so content if results just came like that. But missionary work is seldom like that. So that's my goal, just chill out and enjoy this work. I realized that my impatience could impede on my happiness, and that's no good.

Anyway, this week will be the change for me! I'm gonna work hard but not stress to bad, and have hope and faith that if we work hard things will speed up eventually! Thank you all for your love and support, and I love you all! I promise pictures will come next week. I just gotta take some.

Love,

Elder Ball

Time flies! (Week #6 in Papeete Pirae 2)

Ia ora na!

Another week flown by just like that! Already halfway done with my training, and it's ridiculous to look back and see how much I've learned in the past six weeks. I still plan on learning even more in the next six weeks, so now's the time to shine!

This week was a little slower, a little disappointing. Julie and William cancelled their lessons for this week and said to wait for next week. We're wondering if they just took advantage of us to use the chapel for their reception, but we're keepin' our hopes up high and we'll see about this week! Also Tehaunui pretty much cancelled every time we tried to meet with him, and he didn't show up to either the baptism or to Church. Let me tell ya that was frustrating! I love these people and its totally a bummer to have them flake out on us. We'll just keep pushing forward with them!

On the other hand, we found a few more investigators this week. We met three ladies out on the street the other day, Lani, Orama and Corine. They're all friends, and we taught em a little bit about God and the family, and they we're pretty stoked about our thoughts on that so they decided to start taking lessons together with us. They're super fun and ecstatic about having happiness in the family, so that's perfect for us. We teach them again tomorrow, and I'm stoked!

Other cool things that happened this week, we had a zone conference with three other zones this week down in Faaa. President Sinjoux is the man! He knows just how to motivate us to work our hardest. He also knows how to make us question if we work hard enough in the first place! So it was a good chance for me to reflect and ask myself if I was confident enough in my calling as a representative of Jesus Christ. I'm pretty shy sometimes, not gonna lie, and the language barrier doesn't help much with that problem. But I'm definitely gonna focus more on gaining confidence and trusting in the power and authority of my calling. Good stuff there!

We also had a Missionary Musical Program last night. It was a program that we've been preparing since I got here, and it was sweet! It was a choir of our zone, Papeete, with another zone Arue. I played the piano for all the songs, and it was way fun. Reminded me of my days in Zion Youth Choir! Hahaha good stuff, we're gonna be doing the same program three more times in the next few weeks. The purpose is to have investigators come and understand missionary work through a musical perspective. Unfortunately none of our investigators came last night, but that's why we have it three more times.

Well that's about it for this week. Language is getting better, I'm going on my first legit split tonight with the DMP for family night at an inactive family's home, while Elder Martinson goes with someone else to a member family with potential investigators. My French will be tested tonight!

Shout out to Grandpa and Grandma Call for starting their mission in Salt Lake City East! Love you two!

Ua here roa vau ia outou, e ua ti'ai au e e mea maitai roa te oraraa no outou!

Elder Ball

E mea maitai roa'tu teie ohipa (Papeete Pirae 2)

Ia ora na i to'u utuafare e to'u mau hoa here!

Life is still good here in Pirae. Lessons have been a little short this week because of a lot of cancellations, but that just gives us more time to move around and talk to people.

Lessons with Tehaunui are still great. We engaged him to baptism (I extended the engagement--wattup) and he accepted. We don't have a date for him yet because we want him to come to Church first as to make sure we can realize the date. But he said he's got no work for this coming Sunday and that he's down, so we're pumped about that. He's also coming to a convert baptism in another ward that's on Saturday to see what it's like. We have big hopes for him in the near future. Also for the record, these lessons are in French, this guy's young, like 23 years old.

Julie and William came back from their honeymoon a few days ago, and we'll start teaching them again tomorrow. I can't remember if I said in the last email, but we had to change the date of their baptism to a month later, September 28, because they haven't even been to Church more than one time in their life. We're really hoping that they didn't do all this just to get the wedding blessing from the Church, but we'll continue to work with them and hope to spark that fire inside of em.

All other lessons are going great. We acquired a new investigator named Tonio, he's at the hospital here in Pirae but he's from Punauia down South. His brother insisted that he takes the lessons, so he is with us for now. We taught him once, but the four other times we tried to go and teach him he cancelled on us last minute. Kind of a waste of time when it works like that. It's a lesson in Tahitian so it's good for us, and we want to teach him for obvious reasons, but it's no good for anyone if he keeps cancelling. Kind of a bummer.

The languages are still doing alright. I've been improving at speaking French little by little, and the understanding depends. Sometimes I can totally understand everything that's being said, like if it's a younger person, but if it's an old dude with no teeth I have no chance! Tahitian is coming along too, I've been making more of an effort to keep up on it. The understanding Tahitian depends just the same; if they have teeth I can pick up most of it! It's getting better and better. I know I say that every week, and for me it's even hard to see, but that's what everyone says so it's cool i guess!

Well life is good and I'm loving the work. Food is still awesomely bizarre sometimes, like fried bananas or straight up fish heads or whatever. Sometimes I don't even know what I eat, but I eat it anyway because I'm so hungry! I ate octopus without even knowing it... I'm serious when I say that I can't remember what it was, just that my companion told me I ate it!

That's about it! I've been thinking a lot of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and how we can apply it to our lives only if we choose to. Just remember that the greatest gift our Savior gave to us was his sacrifice for sin and death, and that we should never doubt the healing, cleansing powers that it brings to us.

Ua here roa au ia outou, e ua hinaaro vau e e mea oaoa roa to outou oraraa! Mauruuru no to outou here.

A faaitoito,

Elder Ball

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Tahiti Papeete Mission

Elder Ball, Casey 

B.P. 93

Papeete, Tahiti 98713

French Polynesia

Improvement (Week #4 in Papeete Pirae 2)

Ia ora na i to'u mau hoa!

Another week out and it's crazy to look back and see that I've already been out here for 4 weeks. Time flies by so quickly in the field, it's ridiculous.

We had a lot going on this week! Our investigators are still comin along. Julie and William had their wedding this week, so we had a chance to talk with some of their family at the reception (and eat some more fafaru as well. Thats beside the point I guess). They liked the service, but none of them seemed too interested in our message. They're on their honeymoon for a week so lessons with them are on hold.

Our lessons with Tehaunui are probably my favorite. We had some sweet lessons with him. When we shared the lesson on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, it was pretty sweet to just give him the book to have in his hands and read, and he said that he felt something different during that lesson than during any other catholic service or Jehovah's witness lesson. He's only finished the intro and testimony of Joseph Smith, so hopefully by tomorrow he will had read some of 1 Néphi. I'm hoping so bad that he'll have gained a testimony! That's all it takes to be willing to do the other commitments, like going to Church. He has to work every Sunday, so we're working with him to find a solution. We'll see soon what will happen!

This week we had the chance to go around with the DMP (ward mission leader) and visit a ton of inactive members, including ones who requested blessings at the hospital. It was pretty sweet, I gave a blessing in French and a couple in Tahitian. It seriously is not easy, but it came! We also gave a lesson to this one inactive family, however the Grandpa only spoke Tahitian, and the parents and children spoke mainly French, so during the lesson we would say every sentence twice in both languages so everyone could understand. That was actually pretty fun! These moments were filled with the Spirit, and to have these people feel that again was great, and we encouraged them to come back to Church and Sunday, and the most part of them did. Truly some really great experiences.

Speaking of the languages, they're coming bit by bit. The comprehension is still increasing after all, and I've been really striving to start thinking in French to make the speaking come more naturally, and the only way to do that is by speaking French alll the time, no English at all. It's working I'd say, but it's working slowly. I can say now though that my French has surpassed my Tahitian. That's okay for right now, once I get comfortable with French I'll start focusing more again on Tahitian. It's not as easy as I thought it would be... definitely underestimated balancing out the two!

Well, I just want to say how glad I am to be here in Tahiti and preaching the gospel. Life is just so great in general, and it really is a blessing. We taught Tehaunui about the Fall of Adam as well, and he was so stoked to figure out that the fall wasn't really a bad thing, and that the fall brought about the joy and existence of mankind. Like it says in 2 Nephi 2:25, "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." Like it says, we're alive to have joy and to be happy! We have so many sweet experiences to have and so many moments to share with others, so lets live it with the best of attitudes.

That's it! Just a picture of me and my homegrown bananas to send off too. Peace out everyone, gotta go out and play some weekly rugby soon. Fun stuff!

Ua here au ia outou,

Elder Ball

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Please write me: (Put 3 stamps on your envelope.)

Tahiti Papeete Mission
Elder Ball, Casey
B.P. 93
Papeete, Tahiti 98713
French Polynesia

Things are pickin up (Week #3 in Papeete Pirae 2)

Bonjour mes amis!

The work here is starting to pick up a little again! Just when things were difficult, we were blessed with three more investigators! One is a couple that the DMP found (Dirigeant Mission de Paroisse aka Ward Mission Leader) and the other is one that we found through OLB (Ouvrir La Bouche aka contacting)! The couple, Julie and William, want to get married soon and have taken the lessons before, and so now they are interested in getting sealed in the temple. So hopefully they stick with that desire and follow through with baptism! The other is a dude named Tehaunui, really laid back guy who just wants to know the truth. He's been chatting with the J-Dubbs (Jehovah's Witnesses... yeah we got a lot of lingo) but so far he likes what we teach better. I'm thinkin' it will stay that way! We've only taught him the first half of the first lesson because of a time crunch, but next lesson we'll go over Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I'm so stoked for it!

I'm starting to see some improvement in my French! I seriously had a lot of great practice this week. We had mini missionaries come and work with us, basically some guys from Young Men's so they could see how the mission life is. We went on splits throughout the day, and since these guys spoke no English I had no choice but to speak French. We also had an awesome opportunity to go the temple on Saturday. Again, it was all in French! Way fun, and a little difficult. Also yesterday, I taught our entire gospel principles class for the investigators who came to church. It was no problem! At the end of the week, I can say that I can just about understand everything in French, no lie! The change is amazing, now I just gotta work on speaking. The gift of tongues is real!

No weird things eaten this week. But I did play a Tahitian ukulele! It's not like a normal ukulele like they have in Hawaii, they call that a kamaka here. It's like this big banjo type thing, with the same notes as the kamaka but all the strings doubled, so there are 8 strings. It's way fun to play! Hopefully Ill find one to bring home. Also every house we stop by there's a guitar, so the word is spreading that I can play the guitar decently well and they all ask me to play. How can I say no?

Well, life is good! Some good stuff from the Bible has been dwelling in my mind, Romans 8:36-39. I only have my French scriptures with me, so I'll just summarize and say that it says nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not our trials and tribulations or mistakes or anyone, because God is our Heavenly Father and we are His children. He loves each and every one of us and is watching over us during all of our hard times. Because after all, His only begotten son atoned and sacrificed himself for all our sufferings, so that we wouldn't feel alone during these times and so that we may be able to overcome them and find peace in the life to come. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I don't know how many times I've said that in these emails but it's true. It's the most important fact a missionary will tell anyone.

Take care everyone, I gotta split! Love you all, and I hope life continues to treat you well.

A faaitoito,

Elder Ball

http://mormon.org

Please write me: (Put 3 stamps on your envelope.)

Tahiti Papeete Mission
Elder Ball, Casey
B.P. 93
Papeete, Tahiti 98713
French Polynesia