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
​

--

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!