7/9/18 Pirae 2 Week 23 - Three Baptisms, New Ami, Calm Down the BBQ

Iaorana Tatou!

So this week was pretty sweet. We had zone conference, found some new amis, and had some baptisms!

So for zone conference we watched an incredible talk by Elder Holland called "Feed my Sheep" that I guess is only in the MTC and for the missionaries. I don't know how I didn't end up watching it while I was there because IT WAS INCREDIBLE. He spoke a lot about how missions aren't just for 18 months or just 2 years, but that they go on for their entire lives. IT WAS SO GOOD!!! I love Elder Holland.

We had an amazing this week with a woman named M__ who we had met contacting. She let us come back and to start we sang "Je suis enfant de Dieu" or "I am a Child of God," and opened with a prayer. After we looked up and she was crying so hard she couldn't really speak. After she had composed herself she told us of how her 16 year old daughter had died 3 years ago, and how that song really touched her. We were all on the verge of tears as we taught briefly the plan of salvation and testified that she will see her daughter again, and that she will be able to live with her forever as her mother.

Wild Animals Everywhere

Some funny things that happened: We met a guy named "sandwich", had all of our ward missionaries during our meeting telling us to come back and marry the awesome Tahitian men here, and found out that the French expression for "one hand behind my back" translates to "one finger up my nose". We've started using that one a lot. Another one of my favorites is "Are you stupid, or are you doing it on purpose?" Or "It was eternal... Like a day without bread." French people are so funny. The Tahitian expressions are pretty great too but they don't translate very well. My favorite is "Calm down the BBQ!" for take a chill pill. It applies in so many situations. 

The baptism of B__, H__, and A__ went really well! They were baptized by someone in the ward who's really close to them who happens to be blind. It was an interesting process to have a blind person baptize 3 people (we didn't have any "redo's", but he did hold them down for like 3 seconds), and it was so touching. For these kids he's like their father figure. It was nice to have him there to do it. 

A Blind Man Baptizing

Cute Family