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

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

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!!