Good morning everybody, It's another p-day even hotter than the last. Today is a transfer and the news IS.....I'm staying in Pirae. I'm actually pretty happy about that, I like my companion, I like our investigators and our members. The work is a little rough but it's starting to go places. Yesterday was 9/11 as I'm sure you're all aware. Even in Tahiti people recognize it. As for me, I was absolutely flooded with stuff to do starting at 6:00 am till 6:00 pm. No time to sit down. It was great. The rest of the week was a little less like that but still not bad.
There were a couple weird things that happened this week. One is the the reason everybody here does a blackout every night for about 20 minutes. So there are these bugs. And these bugs have wings and they like light. They don't bite, they don't sting, they just kind of tickle when they land on you. A few of them isn't a problem. The thing is in this season, there are not just a few of them. we were riding up to go eat with a member on Thursday and it looked and felt like a heavy snowstorm of these things!! When we got to our member's, when it was dark, everybody is just sitting in the dark because light would attract even more of them.
Another really weird thing was when, on Friday, some homeless dude slept behind our house. A member brought us back (from mcdonalds lol) and upon arrival at the house me and Elder Packer shout "SDF!!!" (homeless person in french) There was some guy just sleeping on the ground behind our house! David (the birdman, as we call him) who we were with didn't really know what to do cuz he's kind of an awkward fellow. On that thought, neither did I so we just let the man sleep there and he was gone in the morning. super weird.
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| Tahitian man making a drum |
On a not so weird note, we had some miracles worked on our investigators and soon we may even see some baptism dates. We had a training that the zone leaders gave that talked about being more direct with our investigators. (With salvation at stake, we need to do that better) We have been trying to apply that and really try and get our investigators to progress by reading the BOM and praying, going to church, keeping specific commandments, etc. We had some success. In our lesson with one of our investigators, we engaged (commited?) him cut down on cigarettes to 4 a day. after the lesson he pulled out his cigarettes, rolled one up and said "this is my third, I get one more." That and plenty of other great stories.
The package that I got really was the package you sent with the pants and everything. Maybe it accidentally got in priority mail but I won't complain. It was an excellent package. I love the pen and now I can wear contacts every day till the end of my mission I believe. I loved everything but the highlight is definitely the pants. They changed my mission and possibly my life! They're so comfortable. So thanks so much. Also that's super cool that Alaycia's got a job!! nice.
Alright then I'll leave you all to it. It's so weird that I'm getting nervous for bro even though I'm not there. I'll bet you're all really weirded out too. you have reason to be but know that God is always just behind him and all you with his army of angels and miracles. Be strong and take up courage and the Lord will bless you all for it.
-Elder Clements