Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Rainy Days

     Figuratively and literally. Literally because it rained every single day this week. It started last Sunday and ended this Sunday after a grand finale of hurricane like weather that took down many a banana tree, FINALLY! I almost forgot what the sky looked like. 
     Figuratively because rain ruins missionary work in Tahiti. We worked at max capacity and got 12 lessons which is pretty poor. Even when people have a house to do lessons in, they cancel lessons because well 'il pleut, paé!' 
     So ya, today was cool. We went and saw a really sweet waterfall and ate lunch underneath it. Afterwords we went to the beach and played some volleyball.  So ya, a bit of a rough week for missionary work for sure but I'm hoping that this week will be better. K, out of time, gotta go to a family home evening with some in-actives and investigators that I've never met and use candles for light, awesome.   -Elder Clements

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The sky is crying

     It is a rainy day. It has been a long time since I've seen rain like today. It was almost impossible to see the other side of our little valley and in driving here to the chapel we found the roads to be almost stopped because of flooding and had to drive through water about 2 feet deep on the highway. The underground pass had blocked up and the river rerouted to using the road which was quite a lot of water. I'll try and send the vidéo. Even now it's still a downpour.

Look close, that is a river of water going across the road!

     This week was quite a week. On tuesday Elder Drugeon called president and told him that their secteur was too small ( we have 4 missionaries in our ward so we have to share). President said that he was going to take out a pair of missionaries and send them to the islands but...we never got the call so I guess that will happen next transfer. 

     Yesterday we had a cool experience. We had a lesson with a man named Frank at 13:00. That was our only lesson and we were well far from his house at our apartment studying. Now Frank, in our two lessons that we've had before has called Joseph Smith the devil, told us that there's no possible way for the Book of Mormon to be true and it's pretty much just me and him almost yelling at each other  trying to get the other to listen for one second. I was not looking forward to this next lesson and even said "nah we don't need to go" but as I said that the spirit told me "yes you do!" After a long, hot, angry walk we got to his house and sat down. He instantly tells us that he read the book. Oh no, what's wrong with it. Then he tells us that....he liked it and that he is at page 101!!! We gave it to him a week ago! He then continues to retell the entire story until the point that he has read from Lehi leaving Jérusalem until they arrive in the promised land and pointed out all sorts of spiritual things along the way!! He still has a few problems but still! I've never seen anyone change like that. That strengthened my testimony SO much that that book IS the word of God and CHANGES the hearts of men. 2 nephi 33:10 (I think)

 Also Noël, a member, gave me a cool album of hymns. All of these versions of these hymns are the best I've ever heard. For instance there's Joshua James singing God be with you till we meet again. It's called Nearer: A New Collection. Just FYI

     Have a great week everyone. -Elder Clements

                                      star-date 1502-2016 still stranded on the island


Wednesday, February 10, 2016

another cool blessing





This week was pretty good. The work is just really slow still in this area so it's taking some brain power and patience to decide how to make it go better. We do have a baptism fixed but he is going to need to do some work on the word of wisdom and such. I think It'll go alright. I think I told you all about Michel last week and that he disappeared and I thought we would never hear from him again but on Saturday Elder Rolls calls me up from the island of Apataki and tells me he found someone that I know...his names Michel!! So cool! God led the missionaries to him like I prayed, even if it wasn't me. 
     I can't think of a whole lot else that happened this week. We walked a lot and had a decent amount of lessons. It was hot. Honestly this week was pretty tiring. I'm looking forward to going and playing fut salle (indoor soccer) later.
     I did have a really good sunday. I did what has to be the hardest fast I've ever done and that made it all the more meaningful. The thing is that after we started, we walked another mile or two throughout the day in our mountainous secteur of course without water so that night I didn't know if I could actually do it but I prayed for help and woke up the next morning feeling much much better. Another cool blessing.




Also last week I got an excellent prank played on me. I was actually in the middle of doing emails last week when my phone started ringing. "hallo iaorana c'est Elder Clements." 
"Yes, is this the number of Dakodta Clements?" "Yes, who is this?" "this is the Bureau of international affairs at the airport of Faaa. I've called to tell you that your visa has expired 2 weeks ago. I'd like to know you're mode of transport back to your country. We'll send someone to get you. So what are your plans?" "uuhhhhhhh, what?" "monsieur, you know the law." "uuhhhh, yes but...." So after freaking out for a bit I learned that it was Elder Drugeon in the next room using bishops desk phone! Naturally we did it to Elder Cooley right after and he really got freaked out. I haven't laughed that hard in a fortnight for sure!
     K, les gars, have a good week. say joyeux anniversaire to Grandma! I'll send pictures.  -Elder Clements

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Progress finally

Hello. This week I got my new companion and had some really cool experiences. Elder Packer is really cool. He's from Rexburg Idaho and he likes robots. It's been a while since I've talked techno-nerd but I'm broke it out this week and dusted the files off. Also he's really nice and humble which is a good change. 
I learned a lot from Elder Hanson and he worked hard but well... I really think I'm going to get along with Elder Packer.
     This week we fixed a baptizm for the first time in this secteur! All the other ones were miracle baptizms that the missionaries didnt fix, this time it was us! Olivier Hiti! He's great but it was kind of a surprise that he accepted. We had planned to talk about the plan of salvation but when we started, I felt like we should just talk about baptizm, so we did and he was able to understand that it's only in this church that the priesthood exists. Also interesting how he received his answer to his prayer about whether it was true. Evidently the Holy Ghost responded by saying that it could leave when it wanted....which is true. Very cool. 
     Also had another really cool experience that was one of the most powerful on my mission. We taught a lesson to a man named Michel and the Holy Ghost was so strong when I told him that he could pray to know if Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ that he cried. It's been a while since I've felt the Holy Ghost that strong. 
I'll say it again, God lives and loves us and he sent his son, Jesus Christ to save us. 

-Elder Clements