Wednesday, January 27, 2016

1/3 of my mission is already complete...

    


    On wednesday, that will make 8 months on my mission already! The time 
really  passes quick out here. Like I thought, Elder Hanson is being transfered and I am getting a new companion. He is being transferred to Tahaa which is an island out by Bora Bora. Elder Thorpe, another Elder inour house is being transfered all the way out to the Tuamotu's (ring islands). It's a super small one with only a couple hundred people on it. So legit! As for me, I will be staying here but my new companion is Elder Packer! I've met him once or twice, I hear he's pretty cool. He's not here yet but I'll probably get him in the next couple days. The work is finally starting to pick up here in Outumaoro a little. We fixed 2 baptizms this week and one of them is for saturday. Also this week we did more work AGAIN than I've ever done. The standards of excellence is 22 lessons and we did 32 this week! It was a lot of work for sure but it was awesome.
    

Mami's 76th birthday
      This week I was put to the test with the gift of tongues. In total I spoke 5 languages! One of them doesn't really count because I only said a few sentances. It was practicing Puamotu with Elder Thorpe because that's the dialect of tahitian they speak out there. Another was a lesson we had with a mami from an island I forgot the name of and when we showed up she started speaking Gaevave and didn't really speak french. It's basically Tahitian but you replace all the Rs with Gs. That was quite a task to get through a lesson doing that. Another time this week was when I was on a split with Elder Drugeon in his area. We were going to a lesson to teach repentance but Elder Drugeon speaks 0 tahitian so even though I didn't know the guy I had to lead the lesson and translate at the same time. The thing is that half way through this lesson, one of his other investigators from Tonga walks in and decides we're going to talk about baptizms for the dead (oh help me). in tonga they speak wierd english but he had learned some tahitian and french so he would speak in english and i'd have to again translate for Elder Drugeon in french and the investigator in tahitian AND actually teach him...at the same time. So that's what it was like at the tower of babel. I had the biggest head ache after that lesson but it was cool that God gave me some serious gift of tongues for that lesson.
     
     As for a spiritual thought, I would like to testify of the principle of patience. It had been a little slow before this last week but because I worked harder instead of giving in, God has blessed me with being able to find two people who are ready for this gospel. Have a good week everyone!

-Elder Clements

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

EUA! (rain)


This is normally dry when we come by
Yes, it rained this week. All week everyday. Turns out it was an actual storm instead of just the Tahiti rain. We had umbrellas but they can only do so much. It was pretty cool though. Despite the rain we managed to do the most lessons I've ever done in a week at 22 lessons! This week we are going to try and get the standards of excellence. I'm convinced it's possible now thanks to Elder Drugeon (the new french elder in the house) who is actually really cool but is a super hard worker for sure.
     Also yesterday we had one of our investigators come to church who has never come before. Puai is his name, which means power or strength in English. I guess I've told his story before but it's really cool.
     About a month ago we decided to do door-to-door-ing (That's how it translates literally but it looks weird, oh well) on this one road that goes up onto the mountain a ways. We decided that we'd go to the top and come down instead of start at the bottom. Well we kept walking to the top and the houses got thinner and the trail got smaller. Soon there weren't any houses but we figured why not, we'll follow the trail to the end just to see whats there. By this time the trail is barely a trail and super deep into this valley. we came to the spot where it ended just at a chain strung across the path. No house in sight. We shouted IAORANA just for a joke and sat and rested for a second. Dead end but a cool trail anyway. We got up and turned to go back when I saw something move up the trail past the chain. Here comes this short, skinny feller walking down the trail towards us. At first I was pretty freaked out because I just figured it was a pot farm up there and he was coming to chase us off. He got to us and said it was great that we came because he really needs some help in his life right now...ok then. So we went up to his 'house' (a few sheets of sheet metal basically) that was hidden just out of site around the bend and we taught him the Restoration just sitting on some chairs in the middle of the Tahitain woods. Since then we have taught him almost all the lessons and just yesterday he decided to walk all the way to the bus stop about a mile or two down the mountain at 5:30 in the morning to get to church. Turns out we were being led to his little house in the jungle by our Father in Heaven instead of just walking for no reason. That built my testimony that God wants ALL of his children to receive this gospel, even the stragglers hidden in the woods like him.
     Anyway, there's my story for the week. I got the pictures, they were cool. K, have a good week everybody, I'll keep sending prayers your way! -Elder Clements

                                                 Speaks for its self...   


Monday, January 4, 2016

Bonne année!

   So it's been since like last year since I sent an email but it seems like just last week. For new years eve we just did lessons and such like normal but then we went and ate dinner with DMP and his family and then we came back on new years day and ate there too. This week was pretty good. I got to drive a lot this week.
This car is a trooper!
     Elder Thorpes new companion was sick with the denge (dang) when we picked him up last Monday and I had to take him to the doctor on Tuesday and Thursday. He's a lot better now though.
      Yesterday was a great sunday. It starts at 7:00 now which is...early but it's alright I guess. Papi (what we call the elderly men) Tupai is still coming to church every week (he's the old guy that asked us if he could be baptized.) He's one of my favorites! He reminds me alot of grandpa! He's so nice and just loves talking to us about anything. We were over at his house like 4 times this week. He just loves being in this church and now that he's started reading the Book of Mormon, he doesn't want to read anything else! We read Mosiah 2:17 with him yesterday and he loved it and told us that it meant we need to share this book with others and that we shouldn't just hold onto it for ourselves. When we went to his house on Saturday he was shining his shoes and setting everything out for church. I don't even do that! Heck he even put his teeth in for church.
      We (I) teach him in Tahitian because he doesn't speak french all that well so my Tahitian is getting a lot better. I just thought I'd share how miraculous Papi is. I guess he actually doesn't have too much time left according to the docteur. He has diabetes and something else I guess. Still he wants to get married in the temple as soon as possible. God changes people and turns them into spiritual giants!
K, Everybody have a good week!

-Elder Clements