First Transfer

    

Last week with Elder Millerberg

Yes! I am going to be transfered for the first time on my mission! On Wednesday I will be going to the Outumaoro area in Punaauia. Dont worry about pronunciation. Punaauia is next to Faaa and is pretty much the city, a little ghetto actually. I will also be finishing the training of Elder Hanson, my new companion!! I can't believe I'm going to be training right after I finish mine. Not sure if you know but there is 12 weeks of training after you get to the mission field and I just finished that about a week ago. Elder Hanson has done 8 weeks of training with another Elder and I will be finishing the rest. I am SO stoked but also terrified. There are still so many things I don't know how to do very well but now I'm going to have another Elder looking UP to me. This is going to be good for me but also it's going to push me a lot. I'm going to have to actually lead things and be even more obedient than ever. It's bitter sweet leaving Elder Millerberg and Temarua. Temarua is really slow right now and most of our investigators are falling through and such but I still love them all and everybody here. I have some really good friends I'm going to leave here. Elder Millerberg has become a pretty good friend but I'm Super pumped for this transfer!

     Also my 19th b-day was absolutely awesome! The missionary work was a little slow that day but that day I was determined to give it my all and be happy with it so it worked out. I got the package right after sending the email last week and torturously waited till thursday morning to open it. I'll admit I did read the packing slip on the outside but I was still surprised and extatic when I opened it. I've already worn all the ties and pins and I love them all. Even with all 20 someodd ties I had before, I was getting a little bored so this is a good shake up. Also the music equipement just made my mission so much better! I got a bunch of music from Elder Millerberg and Peel and put that on there too so that even optimized it. That night, the Fariki family offered to give us a party and invite the family that normally would feed us that night and that was super fun. We ate some really good chicken and pasta and even had a bunch of cupcakes. Also, an ex-elder, Elder Poheroa (Elder "very dead" in english), was there and let me play his super nice guitar which was an awesome gift. After that we were just at the house listening to music and the phone started ringing, Elder Millerberg looked at it and his eyes got about the size of baseballs and said 'uuuhhh...it's President!" That is usually a big deal when President Bize calls so that freaked me out, and then to freak me out more, after Elder Millerberg answers it, he slowly hands it to ME!! Turns out he was just calling to wish me a happy birthday and say that him and his wife love me! SO nice of President to do that! It was a pretty awkward phonecall cuz we're both awkward people but super nice of him. It topped off that awesome day.

     I heard about the massacre in france. That news spread pretty quick here like everywhere else. I don't know a lot of details but last I heard was something like 120 dead and 300 ish wounded? That shocked me pretty good when I heard that. Made me sad. It's really the last days I guess. We'll be keeping them in our prayers.

     I finshed the To'ere (tahitian drum) today. I think I might send it back to America with Sister Petit along with some other stuff. Not sure if I said but she is going back to Utah for Thanksgiving and offered to take anything we wanted back with her. If that happens I'll give you the details.

     Thats all I guess. I'll let you all know next week how everything is going in my new secteur. I'm really excited though! K, passez une bonne semaine.

-Elder Clements

Back in the saddle again

Hello everybody. I feel a lot better this last few days so ya. I got tired of it on friday and decided to go to the doctor. Super docteur-ish french guy that was pretty crazy and I could barely understand him. Turns out I have Bronchitis (if thats how you write it). He prescribed me some anti-biotics and cough syrup and I am feeling a lot better. So ya, I can actually do missionary work now! stoked!
 

     Today was cool. We went grocery shopping in town and then I finally mailed a letter to Grandma. I wrote it like a month ago but never got the chance to send it. Then we all just walked down to the beach and chilled and listened to big band jazz music and John Denver and walked out as far as we could, up to the knee of course. It was pretty cool, I've got pix.

 

     As far as our investigators, Thomas is going great but his baptizm is in december now because of the marriage. Aaaannndd then the rest are really rocky roads. Mareto has dropped the ball for sure. We are 99% sure he's lying about quitting smoking and keeping his commitments and he still doesn't really want to get baptised. Ruben seems to be avoiding us which isn't good. Heiata has just a mess of a life that we have to try and help clean up if she wants to get baptized, and she doesnt even know if she wants to anymore. We do have some potential investigators but It's proving difficult to get ahold

of them too. We can finally be a bit more busy this week in finding people so that'll be nice. But ya, Haere Maru, Haere Papu. (Go slow, go steady) It'll come.

 

 I do have a cool experience that happened this week. So it was friday and honestly we were just chilling at the house because I felt terrible and we were getting ready to go to the doctor. The gate was open and I saw some members drive up to the neighbours house and start looking for someone or something. As I was wondering what they were doing I started looking at the crap in the yard that had blown out of the trash can and noticed something that looked much less like crap...A shiny red 10 000 cfp note ($100)!! That was quite the shock but then I looked around and found yet another and another. $300 just randomly found floting through our yard?! We decided that for some reason it had to belong to that couple who seemed to be looking for something even though was still super weird. We asked them if they were looking for something and the husband said that his wife had dropped $400 and she had already found one and he called here over. We gave it back and she must have been the most happy person on earth, started crying and everything. They're a pretty poor family too so that was REALLY a lot of money for them. We all concluded that it was a miracle that we were still there while they were and that the gate was oddly still open so it could blow in, and all that. DEFFINATELY was set up by God so that this would turn out all well and we could gain a little stronger testimony from that. Well I felt the spirit at least, can't speak for anyone else. It was cool. Anyway, just that. OK so I'm gonna go turn 19 this week. That should be cool. The Fariki family (theyre members) invited us over for that night so that should be pretty fun. I love that family. I'll take pictures. Happy Birthday Kriah!!! sis. and may your noodres forever be fulry cooked. (asain accent)

- Elder Clements

I'm Finally a Real Missionary!

Golden Selfie

 

 

Yep. This week I finally finished training! It doesn't feel much different except now we can start teaching lessons at 10:00 in the morning instead of noon. That will help a little. This week, not gonna lie, was actually a pretty rough week. The biggest thing is because I've been pretty sick the entire week. That put me into a bad mood the entire week and I was just really irritated at everything and everyone all the time. We also were working extra hard this week because my companion wanted to get stardards of excellence once before I was done with my training because it's lower during training. That sucked. especially when I knew we were doing a lesson super poorly because it was just for a number. Plus some of our investigators started to fall apart so that was tough too. So ya. Halloween was interesting. Most of the day wasn't great because I was sick but at the end of the day we told ghost strories by  the light of our apple-cinnamon candle. That was pretty cool. I love candle light night.

     I am just tired and can't think of much to say but I'll send some old pics. K, good week, that's all fer now folks. ~Elder Clements

typical Papeete building art