A great week!

 January 25, 2016

 Hello tout le monde!!!

j'espere vous avez eu une bonne semaine!!

This week was really good!

First off: We went to go find Teivaiva this week, because he forgot about his last lecon; so we go up to the house he is staying at and there he is with two other people, Willie et Hiriata. Willie is 23 et Hiriata is 18 ish. We talk to them and start to share a message and then all of a sudden Willie says he wants to get baptized....WHAT??? Turns out Willie followed the lecons with the Elders when they were serving here in Taravao...which is like 6-7 years ago!! He apparently heard from Teivaiva that he has been following the lecons and decided to wait with him one day until we came back to that house!! He loved the lecons with the elders and asked to take them again!! #blessed

So one of the first weeks that I had Sr. Lasso we went up into the mountain and did some porte a porte to find new people. We ran into a woman who was TEMOINS her name is Olivia. She was hesitant because she knows there is tention in Tahiti between the Mormons and Temoins. (side note: Temoins and Mormons are the only faiths that prosylite in French Polynesia...so they see it as a kind of competition I guess). Tried to share a message with her...and what did she do? bash on Joseph Smith and our modern day prophet Thomas S. Monson....that's happened a lot since I've been here, but all we could do was "bare pure testimony" which is what President Bize told us. BUT THEN....just wait....we are at our house (this past Saturday) and the five of us are about to do our studies when all of a sudden we hear "COOKOO il y a quelqu'un?" It was the Temoins. They had no idea they had just walked upon the house of the missionaries, but when we walked out I saw Olivia with another sister. I don't know if the word surprised is the right word to use for Olivia when she saw us again, but she tried her best to be friendly to us. It was interesting to discuss with them, though they still bashed at our faith. No matter how many people throw dirt at my faith or dirty it's name I have no doubt that this church is true. With all my heart, I have seen the blessings that have come from being a membre and from serving a full time mission. Yes a mission is hard, and unexpected events are bound to happen, "but always remember that no matter if you have one or zero converts on your mission...I hope the biggest convert you have is yourself." -Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles

Finally: FRERE VITO GOT BAPTIZED!!! Oh my gosh I can't even explain how happy I am for him and his famille!! Frere Vito the father and was the last one to get baptized in his famille. (note: his wife and kids have been converts for a little over 6-8 months now) For a while he would leave when the missionaries would come to teach his famille and he always spoke badly of them. His brother Henri and Fr. Vito's wife basically said that Fr. Vito hated the Mormons and especially the missionaries for a long time. But now, he is baptized. He reads the scriptures every day almost non-stop from what his wife told me and completely changed his life. He was a difficult amis to teach and for a while had trouble with knowing how to read, but now (for most of our past lecons we would read out of the Livre de Mormon with him and explain as we read relating it to the first 4 lecons) he reads almost perfectly. He wears a white shirt to church now with a tie (every single sunday before his bapteme he always wore the same red button down shirt hahaha). He's EARLY to church now! And you can see the light of the gospel in his eyes!! He knows it's true, and at his bapteme he bore such a beautiflu testimony I almost cried!!

The day of Fr. Vito's bapteme it rained.....NOOOOO. We were so close to having clear Bapteme water. But when we got them it was as dark as ever haha. And that evening his famille and his brother did a beautiful program for his bapteme. Fr. Vito's son Nohoarii baptized him!! Earlier that week Henri was looking over the program that Fr. Vito wanted and saw that Noho and him were doing literally everything for his bapteme. Henri spoke to Noho and told him he had need to baptize his father. For a while Noho argued with Henri but then Henri told him "quelle meilleur benediction tu pourrais avoir de baptiser ton pere. Tu vas le baptiser et tu vas jamis le regretter." He was right...Noho didn't regret baptizing his father. I can't explain to you the chills I got when Noho said the bapteme pray! It was so powerful and it was amazing to see a son help his father become clean of all the sin from his "past self". After Fr. Vito was baptized Noho began to cry (which made me shed a tear or two) and just held onto his dad for a long time...and the entire time people are trying to take pictures of them, but it was a beautiful moment to see!

Frere Vito is by far an amazing convert and has changed for the absolute better. What better thing is that (a little bit before I finish my mission) I should be able to go through the TEMPLE with them and watch them get sealed as a famille for ETERNITY! That's the goal our Father in Heaven has for us! We all came into this life and were put into a famille. Why wouldn't famille be one of the most important things our Heavenly Father wants for us? We were put into a famille for a reason, and our goal is to make our famille and other familles eternelle! I can't wait for that day to see the Perry Famille all dressed in white!

From the looks of it this week has been pretty great! It's been full of plusiers benedictions despite of all the hardships that come a long with the mission!

I hope y'all have a great week and enjoy the snow some parts of the US (Bama apparently) has received!

I love you all so much and am so thankful for the prayers!

Jusqu'au semaine prochain!

Ua here au ia outou! FAMILLES ARE FOREVER!!

-Soeur/Tuahine Morrill :)