E ho'i au i te fare

1 hebedoma toe no te tavini i te Fatu e i ta'na mau tamarii i Tahiti

1 week left to serve the Lord and his children in Tahiti

So yeah. I'm filled with different emotions and I still don't really know how to take it all in that I'm going home in a week. I just try not to think about it to be honest. 

This week we're reallyy going to focus on finding and getting new investigators because we lost a lot and a lot just don't want to progress really so we went through the area book to find people and found quite a few names that we're going to find this week. In any case, T - our investigator,  is doing really well. He told us that he had a afeeling that he needs to just stop asking so many questions and read the Book of Mormon already. We were really happy and impressed with his motivation to follow that prompting. He's a great guy and I'll really miss him a lot. But I still have one more week and I ain't finished yet;).

I don't have too much to say other than THANK YOU!

I'd like to thank everyone who helped me out during this 2 year period that I had to serve the Lord here in Tahiti. I've learned so much about the Gospel, the Saviour and really just about the mercy that God has for each and every one of us. I know that he loves us and that he'll never abandon us. 

I'd like to leave you all with one of my favorite scriptures that helped me out before I left for the mission. it's in Alma 42:31

31 And now, O my son, ye are called of God to preach the word unto this people. And now, my son, go thy way, declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mayest bring souls unto repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them. And may God grant unto you even according to my words. Amen. 

I know that God has a plan of mercy and of love for all of his children. He'll always have his arms outstrechted to welcome us, but its on us to show our love and faith. If we do so, we will find the peace in this life that we need and we will inherit God's kingdom after this life. 

I love you all!
Elder Christensen

tei nia iho to te Fatu arofa mau ia tatou

(God's love/mercy is upon us)

This was a great week! I had my last Conseil de Dirigeants which is MLC in English I guess. It was great. I bore my testimony in front of everyone and it was weird to finally be in that position. Time flies mes chèrs frères et soeurs. 

I also got two calls this week from missionaries in my old area Tefana telling me that one of my old investiagtors wants to see me before I go. His name is Maico. He is truly a great guy. Super loving of the Bible and teaching him was great.

then later in the week I got another call saying that Maico's son is getting baptized and he wants me to baptize him the 10 of March. So I got permission from the assistants to go to Faa'a for my last saturday and go to the baptism and then go see people from my two sectors in Faa'a. I'm so stoked. Pure tender mercies. 

Everything is going well. I love our area. Our members and our investigators are just awesome. 

Tavai came to church and stayed all three hours. He had lots of things to share too. I seriously love him and his family so much. I lent him my english scriptures so that he could read the Joseph Smith translation because he was really curious. 

I read the 18 chapter of 1 Nephi this week in one of my studies and I really love the part where Nephi is released by his brothers after being attached to the boat and what's the first thing that he did? He prayed and did not murmur. Pretty impressive honestly. I think that we need to ask ourselves how often that happens to us. After afflictions or trials, even during trials. Do we murmur? I know I do. Do we thank God once they are over? I really love the example of Nephi and if only I could have that kind of patience and thankfulness(i don't know if that's a word). But I know that we can acquire those attributes of Christ through prayer and study and practice. 

Je vous aime tous!

-- 

Elder Christensen

E mea puai roa te varua maita'i

So this week was just great!!

We found 4 new investigators through contacting and it was really rewarding. One family even welcomed us in and we hadn't even explained who we were yet. That was pretty nice haha. 

Also this week our ward mission leader's son got baptized. His name is Manutea and he's just awesome. I love our ward mission leader's family. At the baptism his wife came and it was really just good to see her at the chapel again. After Manutea was baptized our Bishop's wife asked me and my comp to sing a duo as a prelude thing and we were both really shocked and kind of caught off guard so my excuse was not knowing the words in french. SO then she said, " c'est pas grave, chante en anglais alors." Which means, "that's okay, sing in english then" so i told myself that we are missionaries and are here to serve people and pretty much put ourselves in whatever situation whether we are at ease or not. So I sang, "I'm trying to be like Jesus" in English of course and I was singing at the pulpit and see our ward missionary leader and his wife crying. Normally I don't sing in situations like that but let me tell you -the Lord was with me for sure because I don't sing like that usually. So I said some prayers of thanks for allowing me to witness the spirit touching people.  

In any case the baptism was just a really spiritual experience. 

We also got to talk to the Young Men and Women about preparing for a mission which was fun. I love the youth of our ward.

I love this ward. I'm doing great. Keep praying for me. I love you all so much and look forward to seeing you!

Our ward mission leader and his three sons.

here is your typical tahitian neighbourhood
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--

Elder Christensen

ua fati roa te mori a faaafaro ai au i te reira

translation: the light broke while I was fixing it.

It's a great story. 

So this morning while cleaning the house, I decided to try to change the light bulbs in the fan because they were really dim. One ended up being fine but another was really tiny and we had bigger bulbs so I took it out and put the big one in. it worked but the cover was too small so I changed my mind and wanted to put the tiny one back. (Keep in mind i'm on a really sketchy ladder that's held up by a little pin thing. So I start to put the old bulb in and get shocked like I've never been shocked before haha. It went up my whole left arm and then I freaked out and the ladder collapsed from under me and I fell and hit the ground with the glass light cover and the light bulb. Cut myself a little but really little baby cuts so I'm good. Just got a little shaken up. I think to it now and it makes me chuckle honestly. Apparently I yelled pretty loud too. Anyway. I learned from this experience that we need to be careful when handling electrical equipement. But also that after this life, none of that will happen thank goodness thanks to the ressurection. No more pain, no more cuts, no more electricutions. That'll be a great day.

Anyway. This week was pretty great. I finished the Book of Mormon for the second time in Tahitian and I restarted it this last week. I love the Book of Mormon and all the new things that we learn reading it another time the book is true. It brings me such joy:)

I also decided to read the new testament in tahitian with english next to it because *cough cough* the tahitian translation is pretty bad *cough cough* But there are lots of great miracles that I want to be able to reference in tahitian because we're currently teaching a mami who speaks not a lick of french. She's the best. She read the Book of Mormon a little bit and didn't understand at first but the second chapter that she read, she started with a prayer and understood very well. prayer is essential!

Our other amis are doing well. I'm happy to be able to serve the Lord here in Temarua.
Love you all. Pray for me please:)

Elder Jordan and I before a lesson

                                   

our ward mission leader's daughter Hanalei. She speaks English a little bit and it's adorable.

No clever name this time

Hiya!!!

This week was great! Well. sorta haha. 

Was suuuuper sick with the stomach flu at the beginning of the week

But I'm doing well now.

We had a baptism too! Her name is Channel and she is the coolest 12 year old ever. She's super sweet and a genius too. We teach her father too who speaks english as well so its always fun to talk in english with him. 

We have lots of potential here in Temarua. We also have the best DMP(ward mission leader). He's really a hard worker and wants to try everything that he can to help the ward and the investigators. I love him and his family so much. 

I've been reading in Ether and the chapter 12 is all about faith. Basically it says that faith comes first, not miracles. I really like that because we have to first believe and then God can manifest his power unto us. My favorite is verse 18

18 And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God.

I know that this is true. Sometimes it's hard to have faith, but if we keep pushing on and believe, we will see miracles in our lives and in the lives of others. 

I love you all!

Ua hohonihia vau e te hoê uri!

Translation:I got bit by a dog!

Ill explain but don't worry all is well!

So this week we did a split with the Assistants and I got to be with Elder Donadier again.  It was so great to be back with him to be honest.

Anyway. I had decided to go see someone that we had taken with a few weeks ago to just do a little follow up. And I had remembered that In the neighbourhood, there were lots lots lots of dogs. Just as I remembered that a car started rolling up and I had the thought, "I bet this lady pulling up lives In the house that we contacted" she pulls up and says to us, "vous cherchez quelqu'un?" Or "you looking for someone?" I start to talk and they she starts to yell telling me to look out for the dog. Well a flash of black and white and the next thing I know a dog is chewing on my leg. Man did it hurt. So I gave it a nice kick and it ran away. The lady apologize and I'm trying to stay cool and not show too much pain. She then felt pity for me and I started to ask if she had talked to the missionaries before and she said yeah. Long story short she said that we could come back. Basically I learned from this that there are no coincidences haha. And on top of that. The dog didn't even pierce my skin. I just have a bruise that looks like a smiley face haha. God protects his missionaries!

Little spiritual thought.  Been reading in 3 Néphi in the Book of Mormon and In this part Christ comes to the Americas and teaches and calls apostles and it's just really great:). It's really touching and it really brings me peace when i read these things. Life stinks but Christ understands our pain and suffering. He loves us and can make us better if we let him in. 

Love you all!

-Orometua Christensen

: Ua paapaa to'u iri 'uo'uo

Translation:my white skin is burned)

This week was great! We found 4 New investigators this week! Finally people are starting to show up! 

They're all great.  One is a guy married to an inactive member. We asked him what his goal In life is. He said it's to go to the temple and get sealed to his family.:D his name is Marcial and he's a great guy! Seriously a miracle that happened

This week we did a free car wash to find some New investigators and also to do some service to the community.  That's why I'm a tomato right now haha. I also have a gnarly Jesus' sandals burn too. But it was really fun though. Tiring too.  I got to talk to the sweetest Tahitian mami in Tahitian. Her daughter actually proposed that we go teach her later in the week. Unfortunately it's not in the zone so we passed the reference. 

I'm loving it here! Things are going well. Happy to be in this ward. I love you all!

Elder Christensen

Aita te hoê taata i Temarua

there is no one in Temarua

This week was alright. Everyone is still on vacation so that's lovely. But we will not lose hope!!

So as a result, we do lots of contacting. It's actually been kinda fun lately. It's something that I dread(cause I'm a scaredy cat) but I know it's really important anyway to just talk to everyone that I see!!

We're currently working with a member who just decided to drop his old life and become active again. He wants to bring his whole family with him. He's a real great guy named Gilbert. We teach his son and his grandson. We hope that his wife will accept us as well. Currently she's not too interested. 

Anyway. Love you all!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The other night, we all found out that I can kick a cup off of the head of Elder Lerohl(another missionary in the house). apparently I have hops.  So as for New Year goals, there's another goal that I don't have to set haha. 

This is Elder Coxhead, from New Zealand. 

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Ia ora na i teie matahiti api!

Ia ora na tatou

SO I'm going to attach some photos from the baptism of Roméo and Tini and of Gervais. 

This week was great!! I got to skype my family and that was such a treat. Other than that this week was hard haha. Everyone was either drunk or gone. We ended up visiting lots of members and studying a lot too. 

However we're not giving up. We will find people to teach and we will see miracles!!!

We launched lanterns as a zone last night(don't worry we got home in time) for new years. The first one I launched dropped directly into the ocean. What a great encouragement for 2018. Hope my future won't be looking like that lantern haha. It's okay though, because someone gave me a second one so thatI could retry and that one flew just fine. 

NOt much else to report. Things are great with Elder Heckmann. He's really funny. I've been continuing our 3 month BOM challenge and it's amazing how much can be accomplished when we put our trust in God. Seeing all of the BOM heroes put their faith in God is inspiring. It helps me realize that I need to do the same. We all do. Faith + Works = MIRACLES!!!

I love you all. Have a great new years. 

-Elder Christensen