Wednesday, May 25, 2016

One year in!


The grippe might have gone to my head 
     This week was quite a bit better. I got along with my companion a lot better for the most part. I got over the grippe but then got it again Saturday night and then got over it again. Back to back grippe is fun. I had an ear infection last night but now I feel fine again. We got the good news though that on the next boat there is an AC unit for our house!!! Pays off to be obedient. So now we can seal the house and keep the mosquitoes and flies out! 
     We had some good progress with our investigators this week. We re-asked them all to be baptized AND...none accepted but we found their reasons why not. Kahaia is actually the closest at this point. She said she wants to and that she got her answer that the church is true but that she still is afraid of falling after she gets baptized. It'll work out with her soon. Michel has actually fallen off the band wagon a bit. Edouard revealed that he smokes weed and drinks sometimes and that's why he hasn't gotten baptized yet but we're going to help him stop all that which he's very willing to do.

Sat at the table of honor during the marriage
     We partied this week. This week the two branches combined and did what they called 'la semaine de la famille' or...family week? It consisted of activities all day every day this week that encouraged family relations. It was really cool actually. Every night there was a party and we went to almost all of them. 
     In addition to all this I ended up playing loads of performances (guitar/singing) last week and have more lined up for this week. I played "anchor in the sand" and "rivers and roads" for the talent show on Tuesday, "stable song" for Matira's and Georges wedding on Saturday, and three hymns in church yesterday (at which I also gave a talk) and a song at the fireside last night!! SO BOOKED!! President George says he's going to have me train a guitarist to play in sacrament meeting from now on. So la guitare is really turning out to be a big thing these days. That was pretty much the week. This week on Friday I will hit ONE YEAR on mission. Oh how time flies. Dieu soit avec vous jusqu'à la semaine prochaine et à jamais. Je vous aime! -Elder Clements

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Thou shalt not steal: part 2 and 3...





     This week was alright. I got the grippe (flu) and still have it pretty good. I'm kinda out of it still. I struggled hard to get along with my companion this week, probably because I didn't feel good. But I do think I made some progress at the end of the week though. 


Regae version of smashing pumpkins 

We had a cool party yesterday with the protestants. We met some Americans there that just got here on their boat from Frisco! That was cool. 
     We got robbed again on Monday. They figured out how to get in the window while it's closed. and they took nothing but my watch. However on Saturday we came home and they weren't quite as careful. They had taken all our suitcases out and searched them, clearly for nothing but money because nothing else was missing. This time they also broke windows instead of taking them out carefully.


The way our room was left after the robbery
 President George showed up at the church right after and we told him about it. He wasn't exactly too happy about that especially since it's happened about three times to us and the other elders. He said he was going to get Pascale and go talk to them (because he knew who it was). It turns out they just went and beat them up!! Pascale I guess didn't get the memo that they were going over to talk and just walked in and started throwing fists but after President saw that's how it was going down he joined in too. well...sweet! They haven't been back since. Welcome to the island way of stopping thiefs.
     Super cool that bro got his call!!!!!!! I called that he'd go to Texas by the way. Where's my dollar? Its weird thinking that he will actually leave and I'm not going to be there to see it. That's probably better. 
K yall keep on keepin...the commandments.
-Elder Clements



The kids took my camera


Thursday, May 12, 2016

Keep on truckin

Oldest LDS Church outside of the US
     Well it was good to talk to everyone yesterday. It was a little weird just because it's Skype but it was a good refresher and inspired me that everything is fine there and I just gotta keep on truckin. The lesson with Michel was pretty good. He's kind of tired of arguing with his wife about religion but he doesn't wan't to go backwards. We're going to try and teach his wife too so she can grow a testimony. After that we rode about half the length of the island. Then it was time to go eat with President George. Fish and pork! so good. He gave us a cake and told us to guess what kind it was. It was orange and turned out to be a tomato cake! Who knew that could be good. Like I said on Saturday it rained all day and was actually cold. What a huge blessing. Especially since it filled our tanks which were getting kind of low. That's kind of all I've got for today. It was a good week. Still no transfers. Same companion. Patience is a Christlike attribute. K below is a picture of highway 1 in Takaroa after Saturdays storm. 
-Elder Clements






Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Thou shalt not steal...

     Another normal week with nothing big that happened. Lots of lessons, fasted, got robbed, etc. Ya, we got way robbed on Tuesday and yesterday! We came back for lunch and saw a bunch of bread crumbs on the ground and just thought it was our new rats. Came back later and couldn't find my sunglasses...and then my music player and speaker! That's when I knew we got robbed. He'd taken my little iPod, my speaker, my sunglasses, my flash drive and converter, my comp's Nikes, a bunch of food, and more than 17,000 francs!!!! ($170) I wasn't too happy 'bout that. We told a bunch of people and they all thought they knew who it was. Turns out the french police happened to be here randomly and they caught him and found my speaker and sunglasses but it took a questioning to get it back. I think the rest is gone though. It was a teenager known for stealing everybody's stuff who also just stole a bunch of stuff from the other elders yesterday. Good stuff. I guess we'll lock the door now. 

Proselyting in Polynesia  
     Other than that we had a good Sunday yesterday. Michel brought his ENTIRE family with him which was a pure and undeniable miracle. The testimonies were really awesome too. They were some really sincere testimonies that really brought the spirit.
     Well that's about all I can remember for now. 
-Elder Clements