Tuesday, May 16, 2017

-FIN-


Last Mother's Day skype chat with Elder Clements 1 & 2


Well everybody, I'll see you all in a week. The Lord lives and loves us and directs his church. What a wonderful opportunity I've had to share that message and lift people from life's gutters for the last two years. Dieu soit avec vous jusqu'au revoir. 

-Elder Clements


                                                    -FIN-


2 weeks!! WHaoh WHAoh WHAOOOH!!!

That's a grizzly bear reference if any body gets that. Anyway I just don't know what to say. I've become a whirlpool of emotions about coming home. I'm super nervous, way happy, pretty sad, and stoked at the same time. I'm just trying to do the same thing I've been doing over these next couple weeks and then adapt that to the rest of my life. Sister Bize said something a while ago that gave me a lot of peace. She said "Pour venir en mission et rentrer chez nous il faut faire la même chose, Mettre notre confiance au Seigneur." = To come on a mission and to go home, we need to do the same thing, put our trust in the Lord. So that is what I'm planning on doing. I'm not sure about everything that will happen when I get back but if I just keep keeping the commandments God won't let me fall. My testimony has become my most prized possession and applying it throughout my life will bring the blessings I need. And of course that applies to all of us. Alright well, I'll see you all on Sunday! Love you all
-Elder Clements

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Conferences and dog bites



Well we're really coming down to the dregs now aren't we? I've got three weeks left which is unreal! Anyway I'm doing pretty good. My zone is starting to come together and I'm hoping to have another 11 baptisms in the zone before I leave. 
     We had a multi-zone conference on Tuesday that we had to organize and prepare a meal for. It turned out really well actually. The conference was really good and we had an ex-mission president, president Cahoon, of Australia come and talk to us too. He is the one that when he was on mission found president Bizes family and baptized them. He talked about sacrifice and how important it is. That made me think of the line in "Praise to the Man" that says 'sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven'. As a result me and my companion did an "English fast" which was pretty difficult actually considering we're both American. We saw the results of this fast when we were able to fix a baptism date for a new investigator. He is really cool and must be the ONLY investigator I've had that understands everything we teach clearly. We had a lesson with him that was really full of the spirit and he was able to fix a date for the 20 May- two days before I come home! 
     Oh ya I got bit by a dog this week (again) but it could have been really bad if God hadn't been protecting me. I got a couple scratches but if it would have closed its jaws a fraction of a second earlier I probably wouldn't have my left thumb anymore. Also a few days later we were out in the mountains looking for an investigators house when a member came by and picked us up in her truck. After a ways we realized that that was another miracle because there was another bunch of GIANT guard dogs that would have probably ripped us up if that member hadn't picked us up in her truck. Normally she should have already gone home but she ended up coming later...coincidence? I think not! God always has protected me in pretty big ways on my mission and I'm glad He lets me see how sometimes. Well that's about it. I'm probably not gonna send any more pictures...sorry mom, but I'll be home soon. Have a good one!
-Elder Clements

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The ER in Easter


4-17-17
     Ya more like Easter in the ER. News of the week goes to the most unique (for lack of a more optimistic word) Easter I've ever had. I spent the entire Easter morning in the ER.....pretty lame. So Saturday night we actually had some pretty cool miracles but then when we got back to the house I was sitting around watching my companion get his hair cut when I felt something land on my neck. I brushed it off and found out pretty quickly what it was: a honey bee. This honey bee managed to sting me on the middle finger as I brushed it off which...hurt A LOT! It went away after a while but the swelling went from normal (making my finger look like a snow man) to abnormal (making most of my hand look like the Michelin man hand) in about 1 hour. So I called sister Bize up and she just told me to see how it was in the morning. Woke up and found my entire hand and most of my forearm swollen to the point I couldn't even move it. Sister Bize told me to head up to the ER in Papeete. So after an hour drive and a 3 1/2 hour wait I got into the ER but got pretty much no help. I was gonna say something mean but I'll just say I pretty much got NO help and now my hand is still the size of a big-mac. Anyway I counted my blessings and am glad the Lord was resurrected for me and that He saved me from my sins. #PRINCEdelaPAIX
we had a super good fire side on the expiation of Jesus Christ and it brought the spirit a lot. K, I'm gonna have to leave y'all now. have a good one.

4-24-17
     Well p-days have just gotten busy so I don't have time. This week we had a part of our missionary program  that we organized a while back. I gave a talk with my comp and pdt tupai. I'm pretty much just trying to help my zone be successful before I leave which is SO MUCH WORK. but ya its going well and now we have the most baptisms fixed in the mission which is cool.  Actually i gotta go sorry bye. Oh ya my hands fine now.
-Elder Clements

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

No time


     Ya so I had to drive like 300 miles today to do transfers. I was busy all day! I didn't get transferred and neither did my comp. went to leadership council and it was cool. I'm gonna be so busy during these last couple weeks which is totally cool. Shout out to my father who is now a "grand prêtre" or high priest. Congrats for the calling pops! You'll do great. Alright family see you six weeks!
-Elder Clements

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

La conférence générale d'avril


     So there you have it. Conference has come and gone again. This was the last one I'll see on mission and I dare say one of the most edifying I've watched. I'll just add right now that the mission rule has...changed (or been made known rather) that we are only allowed one hour of computer time. Which makes sense I guess and is fine because I only have a few p-days left anyway.  I'm just not going to write as much anymore. 
     So I shall just say that one of the biggest lessons I learned is about following the spirit. I was very moved by Ronald A. Rasband's talk about the Holy Spirit and what I really learned is that I need to follow the FIRST prompting and not waste time wondering if it was my thoughts or not. This will allow me to miss a lot less opportunities and help me gain more faith and confidence in Jesus Christ. I just looked at Bro's email and saw that he got something very similar. It's a pretty important principle as a missionary. Well I'm pretty much out of time so I'll head out and send pics. The Lord lives and it is only by Jesus Christ that we can be saved and repent. I know that this conférence was inspired of God and that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophète. K, have a good one.
-Elder Clements

Last p-day we did a tour of the Tahitian Noni facilities because the manager is the elders quorum president in our ward. He's from Utah!


3/27/17 Many are called but few are chosen

This week was a bit rough but we were able to fix a couple baptisms...but un-fixed the two that we had. 
One has had problems with her family but is now ready to fix the date. It's a little far, the 25th of May and I won't even be there!! but I guess that's life.
Another Is a girl that we found a while ago and now feels the power of the things we teach her and will be baptized the 24th of April.
     Ya this week was just a bit difficult because there was a lot of things cancelled and just didn't go well. Plus the Elder that made dad's tie and one of our best missionaries, who is the district leader of the australe islands got his arm broken and has to be transferred back to Tahiti and into another zone because his companion pushed him off his bike. That made me pretty mad actually because we really needed him down there.  AAHH!! Oh well, I need something to exercise my love and patience. 
     The Rough week ended yesterday for sure when we had our stake conference. The adult session on Saturday night was really good too but the general session yesterday took the cake and was even life changing. It was the best stake conference I have ever been to. All the talks were very good and most were even focused on doing more missionary work which of course is wonderful, the choir was beautiful, and president Bize and sister Bize gave some amazing talks as well. President Bize started the pounding of spiritual machine gun fire by explaining the real meaning of the scripture "many are called but few are chosen" by a story about a branch president that was called who president was pretty hesitant to call because he wasn't super great at anything but the only other options, who were perfect for the calling, didn't pay their tithing and disqualified themselves for that calling. Thus many are called but few are chosen. After that president Tupai (our stake president) gave an amazing talk about the same thing but also how we need to consecrate our lives more to the Lord. It was a very powerful talk and to end it he gave a blessing to the entire stake (like "by the authority..." and everything) so that we may be more consecrated to the Lord. I didn't even know we could do that but the Holy Ghost was so strong. I haven't felt like that during a talk since the MTC. I'm glad to have a stake presidency that is consecrated to the Lord and cares so much about the members in their stake. As a result I also will make more of an effort to consecrate my life fully to the Lord. He lives and He is our perfect example and following Him in all that we do and being ready sacrifice in doing it will always bring us joy and we will never regret it. I love you all. Have a good week.
-Elder Clements

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

3/20/17 Trunky? nah

     Well maybe a little...in response to mom's question, yes I do have more empathy on trunky missionaries. It's not a result of not working but rather just something that happens. It doesn't effect me too much but ya know.

 "Ya it looks a little weird but we'll see who's laughing after we eat spaghetti!" - me

     So this week was a really unsuccesful week actually. LOL! Litteraly all our lessons got cancelled and a bunch of our investigators kind of disapeared but we're being optimistic about it. Weeks like this happen and I shouldn't be around long enough to see another one (optimistic perks of being trunky, lol.) 
     I got the van stuck three times this week. The first time I moved off to the side of a little path and felt the confirming clunk of 'oh yer stuck'. Me and my companion were able to get it out with sticks and rocking techniques. The second time was just a bunch of mud and we pushed it out pretty easily. The third time was by far the worst. We were going to see somebody and I went to go turn around and I still don't know how I did it but I drove over giant rock and then fell into a hole on the other side. It made some scary sounds and I guess it was sitting on the crank shaft or something so I shut it off. Upon looking at the scene I found that the back wheels weren't even on the ground so we walked over to someones house (super rich, with an escalade, a motorized mountain board and all that) and asked him if he could pull us out. Evidently we were on private property so he got super mad at us but ended up pulling us out with his backhoe. I don't think anything is broken, so it was a pretty sweet adventure:) 

Round 1

Round 2

     Also this week I went on a split with Elder Garff!! He's one of the assistants right now. I went into his secteur in Papeete and learned a bunch of great stuff and got to spend some time with an old friend. So ya, that's all folks. Have a good one! Love you all!
-Elder Clements

3/13/17 The Harvest Begins...
Haircut time

     So this week we did a lot of work and got a lot done. Tuesday was a pretty not good day actually because everything got cancelled but the rest of the week we were out fixing lessons, finding new investigators, visiting members and committing them to come to lessons and find us new people, finding old investigators, etc. At the end of the week we were able to see the fruits of our labors which is nice for a change. On Saturday we refixed a baptism for a guy who really knows the church is true but needs to get married first but it'll work out. Oh ya and those people that stopped us at the pizza joint, we found the couple and fixed the baptism date with the lady. That was definitely the first time fixing a baptism with someone I met first. Then yesterday we had a whopping TWELVE investigators come to church and it was just awesome. Also on Thursday, a member from Taravao (the city next door) presented us a new investigator that i'm pretty sure is made of gold. She is from the marquises and is super interested in what we believe and even cried when we taught her about prophètes. It was a perfect first contact. We were there on time, the member came to the lesson, and we even taught the lesson in bishops office. It was legit. But ya, goes to show that work eventually pays off. Le champ est blanchit pour la moisson (the field is white for the harvest). The Lord's true church continues to go forth. Have a good week!

-Elder Clements

Rond Bouton. I dont know what it is in english.



Thursday, March 9, 2017

We moved!


with Elder Gonzalez
      Wow so ya there was kind of a lot that happened this week. Monday was the transfer and we dropped off Elder Gonzalez and walked around Papeete for a while. On Tuesday and Wednesday I was with Elder Terry and Campbell waiting for my new companion and so we were covering two secteurs for a couple days. That was fun.
     On Wednesday WE MOVED. This house is amazing and normally should not be a missionary house because it's giant and brand new. It takes us forever to clean it but it's so worth it because of how legit it is. 
     But anyway on Thursday I went to Conseil des Dirigeants (Leadership counsel?) and got my new companion and made more plans for raising l'assistance...eh...à la chapelle....basically people coming to Church. We then had a zone meeting on friday and a meeting with the stake president to make plans on the level of the stake of Papeari and the austales. Our zone includes the islands of Tubuaï and Rurutu and all those other islands in the South. It's going really well actually. We already had 50% of our goal just this last Sunday. We're hoping to raise the percentage of people at Church by 10% by the end of march which means we need to get 139 people to Church. We're on track with a rough 2.5% increase yesterday. 
     That's all for now. We've seen a bunch of miracles this week including a  car load of people stopping us while we were at a pizza joint and ASKING for us to come and teach them. That doesn't really happen very often so that's for sure what we call a miracle. God lives for sure people! alright well that's it for now. President said I could go research colleges on p'day so I'm gonna start doing that today. Love you all, see you in a couple months.
-Elder Clements

Who knew that tiny islands with a thirty-foot diameter really existed?

Attachments area

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Transfers, wounds, Caussé, and moving out

   

     Today is transfers and my companion, though he has not been here long, is being transferred to Tahaa. My new companion is in the Tuamotu's and gets here Thursday so I'll be doing some weird area juggling for a few days with Elder Terry and Campbell. 
     Ya so I wounded myself like 4 times this week. On Monday, while at the little island, I was walking in the ocean to go fishing and slipped and cut my foot on some coral :( I didn't need stitches but it bled for a while. Then on Wednesday, while doing push-ups in the morning, I hear a *CRUNCH* in my shoulder which was pretty weird but it didn't hurt to I finished off my set and called it good. Later that afternoon is when it REALLY started to hurt and I could barely drive because of having to shift. I still have no idea what I did but it hurts less now even though it still pops a little bit. 
     On Wednesday we're moving!!! Our house right now is in pretty poor condition but now we're moving. Our new house has two stories, 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a GIANT yard with a million types of fruit trees (grapefruit, lemon, coconut, banana, pineapple, mango, passion fruit, etc). So that's all pretty nifty. 
     Oh ya so this week I got a whole bunch of letters from everybody in the ward!!! It was so awesome and uplifting to feel all he support that my home ward gives me. Tell everybody thanks for their encouragement (we say that in English right?) and love. I love all of them as well so much! 
     As a spiritual thought or this week I learned something important about the Holy Ghost. It's something that I already knew but didn't REALLY know if you know what I mean. It's that the Holy Ghost doesn't tell us EVERY single thing we need to do. We need to walk in faith by the principles of the gospel, following all the commandments of God at all times but there are multiple correct answers and the Holy Ghost doesn't give us them all. As members of the Lord's church, we have to right to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost but he is there to comfort us, protect us, and guide us but not to make our decisions for us and not to take away all the trials of life. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to a Holy being next to me constantly according to my worthiness. I know that the Holy Ghost is real and is truly one of the greatest gifts available in this life. Let us use this gift to it's full potential.
     Well I need to get out of here so I'll talk to you all next week. Passez une bonne semaine.
-Elder Clements

Coral wins round one

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Te ora noa ra



     Ya so today I don't have much time again. My companion likes to plan giant activities like every week for the entire zone so we've gotta go change a boat motor and then we're going to a little "motu" right next to the shore (motu=island). I'm really close to coming home by the way so It's getting hard for some reason to find things to say in my letters. This week we have a bunch of stuff going on so it'll be better next time. Zone leader life is going fairly normally...ya I gotta go. Aru'ae!
-Elder Clements

Friday, February 10, 2017

Conseil des dirigeants

     Bonjour. This week was really good. I'm still getting used to being a zone leader and driving this giant van. Today I got  a photoshop free trial on this computer so I've been using up all my time editing pictures... time flies when you're having fun. 

What're thoooooossse?!?! (thank you photoshop!)

     I went to leadership counsel on Thursday at presidents house with all the other zone leaders and the assistants and it was rally cool. We talked and discussed about some new plans for the mission this year. It's really cool because you can feel the spirit really strong. I was the one to make the monthly challenge for this month witch is to have 12 member references per ward before 3 weeks. We've got some good plans that we've already talked about with the stake president (who is awesome).  I feel like not too much happened this week other than that and our zone meeting with the australs. Ya, our zone also includes the austral islands  like Tubuai and Rurutu. We used google hangouts to talk to them and we even made a super cool presentation to give our training and used screen sharing so they could follow it. 
     Alright well that's about it for now. We're gonna go to Carrefour (walmart kinda) and go pick up the others. The church is true and is lead by the Christ Himself. 
-Elder Clements
Our hike to Vaihiria lake

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The Lake

   These weeks just keep rolling past and now I only have less than 4 months till I come home! This week we were able to fix a baptism with a feller. So that's cool and we have even more that are super potential. 
     This week we watched a worldwide missionary conference and things...changed a little. We no longer report the amount of lessons and progressing investigators that we do every week. All we count are baptisms, baptisms fixed, new investigators, and investigators that come to church. I think this will be good because it will help us to teach from our desire for others' salvation and not for the numbers.(see Alma 29: 10) That's already the goal but I think this step will help. 
    Yesterday we had a day that was insane that led us all the  way into Papeete looking for a car battery and that's why we didn't have time to email.


 In the afternoon we went on the most amazing hike I think I've ever done. We hiked up to the Vaihiria lake which is the only natural lake in Tahiti. It is way up in the mountains and was some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen with tons of waterfalls falling right next to the trail, bridges, mulitple-thousand-foot mountains encircling us on both sides, and literally zero people. It's kind of obscure because you have to ask permission from the private property owners and even then it's pretty far. So that was pretty legit. 
     Something really cool: There's a sister missionary in my zone that lives in my old area. I ate with her family right after she went to the MTC and before I got transferred and I had felt the impression to tell them that they would be protected and blessed because their daughter was a missionary. I talked to her yesterday and asked if her family had been flooded out like many others in that area (seeing as they live right next to they river too) and she said that every house next to hers had been flooded except for hers. I thought that was really cool and strengthened my testimony that this church is God's church and that he protects those who share it as well as their families. 
     Love you all, have a good week.
-Elder Clements

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Transferred

January 16th


I'm not  gonna write too much today because I've got stuff to do but ya I GOT TRANSFERRED!! I've been in Pare for the last 7 months and It's kind of hard to leave. Yesterday was a great last Sunday. I spend pretty much all day visiting people and saying goodbye. At church there were a bunch of my friends with that came and the new member we baptized blessed the sacrament which was so cool as well. 


My new secteur is on the other side of the island in Mataiea where I will be the new zone leader with Elder Gonzalez from France. I'm excited about it. I'll be driving a big 'ol toyota deisel van too so that's cool.  That's about it. I gotta go drop some Elders off at the ferry to go to Moorea and then go do more transfer stuff. Have a good week!

Last supper in Pare with Bishop and his family and Laman and his family.


Ward mission leader and his wife

January 23rd

    Alright so this week it rained...a lot. When I say a lot I mean destructive amounts of water endlessly pouring out of the sky. Basically the news is that the most populated parts of Tahiti got SUPER hit by flooding Saturday night/Sunday morning. The worst of it is in Punaauia, Papeete, and Pirae. The latter being my last area. The underground parking lots are all chuck full of water in Papeete and pirae, a large bridge in Punaauia collapsed, a few peoples house collapsed  and many damaged in Pirae and a large part of the road turned into the river (that was gnarly)

 and even the airport flooded and damaged a couple air Tahiti planes and shut down all flights in and out for more than 24 hours. (I'll bet that'll be expensive)...so ya.

 I went into town today and it really wasn't the apocalypse that the news made it look like. There's still a fair amount of damage but most stores are still open and most people are going about life like normal. School was out today and most church was cancelled yesterday. We didn't really help at all because there was no damage on this side of the island and by the time we got to town this morning it was all under control....I kinda wanted to but oh well I guess. Tahitians are good about a speedy clean up
     Other than that being a zone leader is super cool. We had a lot of miracles this week and I'm getting along with my new companion SO great. So that's all for now folks. Have a good one and please send a few prayers in the direction of the affected people of flooding here in Tahiti. Thanks and love you all!

-Elder Clements

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Changes on the radar


     Good afternoon, it is I once again. I am still in Pirae....Since I'm bro's with the assistants they hint to me that I might not be transferred after the 7 MONTHS that I've been here. Well alright then!! 8 1/2 months in one secteur ain't a problem. I'll just know everyone REALLY well. So ya that's not what's changing. What's changing is the entire mission. locally and worldwide evidently. Bruther, I don't know if you've heard about this but you will the 25th if not during the worldwide meeting thing. As for the Tahiti Papeete mission, we no longer get up at 6:30!!! we get up at 6:00am and possibly at 5:30am next transfer. We do planning in the morning, our companionship study is 30 minutes instead of an hour as well as training for new missionaries. We come back at 8:30pm and sleep at 10:00pm. So that's SUPER different but I love it. Evidently the church is trying to adapt the missionary schedule to the region where they are. Here, people get up early and sleep early so with this schedule we have more time available. It's really cool. Another change is just an even more extreme transfer than the last one. It's already started and it's going to involve a bunch of replacing sisters with elders and elders with sisters so next Monday I will officially be the church moving van and I don't know if that will leave me time to email so, till we meet again people! 
     Aside from all that hectic business our new converts are doing very well. One of them received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday and even bore his testimony!!!!! It was so awesome. It's things like that that strengthen my testimony that this church is true and lead by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's been really really cool to see that light that has come into his life because of this gospel. That light is spreading and his parents and they have even started reading the Book of Mormon with him. Nifty ain't it? Well everybody I love you much and wish you the best. 
-Elder Clements

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!!!


Reunion with MTC boys

     Well everybody, it's been a couple weeks since I've sent an email. There's been quite a lot that has happened...Christmas happened, 2017 happened, 3 baptisms happened, etc. Christmas was wonderful. I, of course, talked to my family and that was excellent. We had our Christmas party which was fairly cool and like bro, we also watched "La vie de Dory". Christmas eve was the best Christmas eve of my life. We went and did some caroling at the hospital with the 4 elders and 4 sisters of our Arue district and the spirit that was felt was indescribable. We sang for three people: A girl that was coming out of a 3 month coma and her family, a random lady that the spirit led us to, and another lady that we had given a blessing to a couple days earlier and had just had an operation earlier that day. It was amazing to be able to bring a little Christmas spirit to those who were spending Christmas in the hospital.
 
Christmas day spread
     As for our three baptisms, SO COOL!!! It's been a long time since I've seen a baptism and these three were awesome and full of miracles. One we baptized is doing awesome and still comes to every activity and is progressing well. Another one got married the same day as her baptism and it was her new husband that baptized her so that was cool. She had a rough time with her family accepting but at the end her parents came to the baptism!!

 And the other one we baptized had a great turn out from friends and family and ward members and the service was super spiritual. He got confirmed yesterday.
     Well that's about it for now. I love you all and hope you had a great Christmas and new year. Don't forget to make goals. Not just goals but plans to go with them. Mine are to have more gratitude for the blessings I have and to exercise more faith. The Lord lives and loves us, may He guide you through this year. 
-Elder Clements
Happy New Year!!