Famille, Friends, Americans
lend me your ears!
How are y'all? :)
This week has been good! And on
the bright side of doing porte a porte this week we actually got rejected by
super nice Faranis (native French people)!
Along with another super cool
addition to the week: We are teaching ENGLISH CLASSES!!!! Well I am at least,
and Soeur Lasso is teaching SPANISH! It's been super fun, because I finally get
a little bit of a feeling what it's like to teach my native tongue to other
native speakers!
Blessing 1: Also this week has
been kind of a whirl wind with some of our other amis: So we have this amis
named Abraham...not really sure if I've told y'all about him, but he's been
super difficult. Abraham is living in concubinage with a non-pratiquant
named Sr. Hapai! He hasn't been super faithful to Sr. Hapai and des fois goes
and stays with another woman (I know right...not so great), but we see he's
home so we stop by to say hi! He sits us down and tells us probably some of the
MOST AMAZING NEWS EVER!! Him and Soeur Hapai have talked and planned their
MARIAGE!! And after they get married, Abraham wants to get
BAPTIZED.....WHAT???!!!!!! Il a dit "on veut se marier et je veux me faire
baptiser." He said it was like no big deal! They planned their mariage for
the 6 Février which is ya know at like the end of this week!! He said after he
talks with our bishop then he will choose a date this week for his bapteme! I'm
not gonna lie...It's hard to trust people like that when you've heard so many
harsh and awful things about them, but I really have the faith in him that he
has changed. And if it really works like he's told us, I know that after he is
baptized him and Sr. Hapai and their kids (Hinanui and her sister) will all
prepare to be sealed in the temple as a famille for eternity! I'm praying so
hard for them, because Abraham is a great example that people can change even
when you think they are "too far gone."
Blessing 2: Later that same
evening we finally met a the famille MARCANTONI! They are a famille of 4,
Nellia et Yannick et leurs enfants Teariikinui et Tumatoarii. They are
references from another zone in the mission and they heard about the church
from Nellia's brother who is getting married and then baptized into the church
in a few weeks. They went to a coin de feu (fireside) with her brother and
became super interested. We taught them the Plan de Salut, and boy was that a
great lecon! Nellia had so many great questions, and her eyes lit up when we
told her that her grandma's diabetes was NOT a sin and that is was all part of
God's eternelle plan for her. They were happy to hear that familles can be made
eternelle and sealed in the temple. They are such a busy famille. They kids are
wicked athletes and go en ville into Papeete Faa'a area every weekend, and they
work until super late every other night, so the only nights they are available
are Thursday nights. But I can see it! They're gonna be the next famille to see
the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and be baptized and be
sealed for FOREVER!!
So along with getting rejected
by everyone on the mountain again, Soeur Lasso and I had a really good
discussion about faith and building your personal conversion of the gospel.
Like I said in one of my last emails: if you only have one convert on the
mission I sure hope it's yourself who has grown closer to your Heavenly Father.
Peu importe the number of how people you baptize. Yes, our objective is to
invite others to come unto Christ and to teach repentance and baptism, but you
want to make sure that your conversion is just as strong when you teach your amis
so that for sure you are their to help them increase their faith and enter into
the waters of baptism.
I'm gonna be honest: numbers
are stressed a lot here, and it's stressful. And we have become discouraged des
fois in thinking that we aren't accurate missionaires if we don't reach a
standard of excellence that our President has set for the mission (which is btw
for every week: 22 lecons, 3 new amis, 3 bapteme fixes, and 6 amis a la
sainte-cene). Numbers are stressed a lot, and it causes a lot of anxiety and
stress in the missionaires in this mission, but I've realized one thing: yes,
you should always work hard to find people to teach and teach people when you
find, but if you don't get those numbers that week IT IS O.K. It's not the end
of the world. Heavenly Father sees that! If you are working your hardest every
day and trying your hardest to be obedient then He will bless you....yea it may
not be in high numbers but it will be in small miracles and blessings you pick
out every week that will eventually grow into an even bigger blessing later on
down the road. So WHAT if we don't get those numbers every week! Abinadi
converted someone and he didn't even know it! (Mosiah 11-Mosiah 17 Le Livre de
Mormon). So WHAT if your president emphasizes numbers. You are your own
missionary, and if you work your hardest, you will be blessed. #dropsmic
I've given y'all bits and
pieces of what the other half of our mission is like throughout my emails. I
love my mission with all my heart, and I've grown so much in my own testimony
that every time we get rejected by someone, yea it's a little sting in the
heart, but we have just planted a seed that someone down the road will
eventually harvest.
Missionaires plant a lot of
seeds on missions and des fois we don't see the fruits of our labors, but our
Heavenly Father does, and ya know what...that's all that matters.
I love y'all so much and pray
for you all every day!
J'espere vous allez avoir une
bonne semaine avec vos familles et amis!
Ua here au ia outou!
jusqu'au semaine prochain!
-Tuahine/Soeur Morrill :)
p.s. the water didn't kill me
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