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