September 15, 2014 - Pet Crab

The mission goes by so fast.  I can't believe I have already been here for more than 3 weeks.  

At first the week was going well but by the time we got to Saturday almost everyone had canceled their lessons, so we just did a lot of biking.  We biked to someones house and then they canceled the lesson so then we biked to someone elses house.  We had a member with us too, which at least was good.  On Saturdays everyone is either drinking or they go to the airport because the plane only comes once a week.

I was starting to get frustrated with myself and started to ask Heavenly Father to help me feel His love again so that we could keep going.  I prayed so that I could be purified by the Holy Ghost so that I could be a more effective and loving missionary.  I know Heavenly Father answered me because after taking the sacrament I felt such a peace.  I knew God was keeping His promise to give me His spirit to be with me as long as I would be keeping His commandments and being a witness of Him. 

Then something amazing happened; The wife of the branch president had me sing two solos in church which makes me uncomfortable but I did it anyway. We had scheduled a lesson with this couple Litisia and Manutua.  We met them one day at their house and did a lesson with them.  They told us we could come over Sunday but where they live it is only accessible by boat so we had them pick us up at the end of the road to go on the boat.  It was so so pretty.  And then we ate fish, coconut, breadfruit and stuff with our hands. They had this like pet crab that was the size of my torso.   Teriffying.  But after eating we were able to do a lesson with them.  We had planned on doing all of the restoration with them and engaging them to be baptized so we did but we had forgotten a Book of Mormon. Luckily the mom of the member who came with us had been inspired to leave a Book in the car and so we took it with us.  The spirit was so strong and they all accepted to be baptized if they find out it is true. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have, and I know that if a man lacks wisdom he can ask of God and God will answer him. Manutua told us about how he knows God lives because he would pray over and over that his parents would stop beating him when he was 14 and he felt peace and love of our Heavenly Father.  

 I have become closer to Heavenly Father as I have seen how much I need Him.  I felt so peaceful and loved as we were riding back to the village and we could see the sunset and all the stars too. I'm not really sure how it was possible but it was such a good experience for me.  I thank Heavenly Father for the trials He gives us and the love He gives us to support them.  

July 21, 2014 - Mission Leader

iorana. Eaha to outou huru?  hinaaro vau ia faaite tou mau ohipa i tupu i roto i tei nei hepetoma i mairi aenei.  E mea maitai roa i teie hepetoma.  ua faitoito noa vau no te tauturu i te tahi i te haere i mua i roto i tei evanelia.  Te tahi taime e mea fiu roa i teie ohipa no te mea i mairi.  No tou mau hoa o te ekaretia i parau parau aita hinaaro matou e haere i mua et faatupu i te hinaaro a te Atua.  Aita matau i taua.  E mea fifi roa tera peu.  Aue ta oe i haere mai no te tavini i te Atua.

Since you guys are on vacation now I thought you would have a little time to try to translate this.

I don't have a ton of time but I just want to show you guys the cutest thing ever. My mission leader in the ward Br. Parau is the best.  He is this adorable Tahitian man and his wife Leila isn't a member. Sometimes it is really hard for him because his wife doesn't believe in the church, but I really love her too. Monday we did a family home evening with them and we talked about unity in a house and family. It was good and it was so, so sad because at the end Br; Parau shared his thoughts about how he wished his wife loved him as much as she loves their kids, but he said he patientely waits for her to show her love for him.

I haven't been able to charge my camera at the house because I lost the charger in the house in Mahina and I have no idea where it is. So the mission leader found out about it and he told me to give him my camera. I gave it to him and that week during our coordination meeting he showed me that he and another new convert in the ward had made a homemade charger just for my camera with things they found in the garage. It is so so cute and I couldn't believe they spent all that time just to make a charger for my camera so I could take photos here.

Our mission president is changing a lot of things in our mission now and actually it is really good.  He is so so nice but very official at the same time.

Something weird happened in the mission where we had way too many sister leaders called, so now we are going to "release" a lot of us.  I am on the committee for making up the rules for the STLs.  We will see how it goes.

I love you all and I am so grateful for my family.  I am grateful for eternal families and that the Priesthood was restored.  Gospel ordances open the doors for us to fully use the power of the Atonement in our lives.  He lives and He loves.
Soeur Kimball

July 14, 2014 - Working at Temple

I have been stressing out lately for being at the temple because I am not so good at doing things in front of lot of people, but it was so, so good yesterday. We had about 50 people that passed through and I and my companion did so good.

One of my favorite parts to explain is the first vision because everyone becomes really silent when we talk about Joseph Smith.  Since I have started working at the temple (we are there maybe ten hours a week) my testimony has been really strengthened. I have really been able to understand so well the gospel principles, and I have felt the spirit in teaching so many times. It is actually really good.

This week we saw a miracle. One of my favorite investigators, Maina, was refound. I started the lessons with her about three months ago in my sector with my other companion, but all of a sudden she dissapeared and her phone didn't work anymore.  It turns out that for those months she was working a lot and someone stole her phone so she couldn't contact us. It turns out one of the sisters in our ward went to visit a sister that lives next to Maina and Maina asked them if they were Mormon and told them that she was ready to have the sister missionaries again.

I was so happy. Friday we took her and her boyfriend to the temple to visit the welcomers center and do a tour in the garden. It went so well. She really, really understood that the church is true. I watched as the light came into her eyes when she realized that she had to be baptized to have eternelle life. She even said she wanted to make all of her little brothers Mormon who live on another Island so they could grow up in the church.

She told us a personal experience she had this week where she really prayed to know when she should be baptized.  Immediately afterward she turned to Alma 32:16.  Look it up. It was a direct answer to her prayer.  I know it and I pray with everything that we would be able to help her boyfriend understand too.  We actually work with a lot of couples and I love it. It is so good to see people come unto Christ.

So, I have to go because my companion wants to play ping pong really bad and she is about to burst waiting for me.  I thank you all so much for your prayers.   I love you all and I love the Lord;
Soeur Kimball

July 7, 2014 - Faith

This week has been very good. Slow, but good. Sometimes I feel like I am living in slow motion.
We were supposed to have the baptisms this week of Toimato and Kulani, this really cute couple who are my age ( so weird) and who just got married so they could get baptized, but then Kulani suddenly and unexpectedly had her baby!  So now she has to wait to get better. I was dissapointed at first but I am so excited that Matarai, their baby boy, is doing well. He will get to witness their baptism so that is cool.

We have a new mission president and we had a conference with him. He is an amazing person and made us all cry just by bearing his testimony. He is very organized and so that will be good for our mission. We need more organization and communication. Half the time I have no idea what is going on.

Also, we had an amazing lesson with Bea this week. She is the investigator that I found by tracting. I say I found because my companions simply watched me talk to her from a distance because they were too nervous, anyway she really wants to get baptized and she feels that the church and the Book of Mormon are true but she is having a really hard time. She is really, really poor and her husband is criticizing her for taking the missionary lessons. She has a lot of adversity at this moment and I would ask you to pray for her so that she can have the strength to continue with us even if her family is against it. We really want her husband's heart to be softened, and I know the Lord will not leave her abandoned.

My companion Soeur Tehiva is doing better and her niece is healing. I was so happy and relieved. Me and Soeur Tehiva are great companions and best friends. She is very cute and has a firm testimony.

Funny story from this morning and this week. People here sometimes here are too nice. This morning at the grocery store a mami started pulling out money to give to us just because we were missionaries. I was like,"no no no", and then yesterday this man in our ward that is single, and may or may not be in love with me, called us to tell us he had a big bag of banans to give us. I will be a very very giving person when I get back from my mission.

This week I learned an important lesson about faith. I have realized that even when it is the most hard to endure and continue and everything seems to be slackening and going really slow that is when I need to have the most faith. Faith is one of the most powerful forces we have, and if I don't have enough faith I could be preventing potential miracles from happening. I know that the Lord works miracles according to our faith, and we show our faith by acting. Showing our faith by offering a simple prayer or doing what is right even when others mock us builds our faith. I love what Elder Eyring said that acting on even a twig of faith allows God to grow it.

Faith is a choice.

I showed my faith this week by going and knocking on peoples doors with my companion, who hates doing tracting, in the hopes of finding someone who would be interested in knowing more about the gospel.  Did we find anyone...no not really, but I did get to bear my testimony to a Moeari. A 15 year old girl who's mom died and I was able to assure her that she would see her mom again. She probably thought I was crazy but I know it reassured her.

I am so grateful that we are expected in this life to walk by faith and not by sight. That helps us to grow and find for ourselves that Heavenly Father is really there. He works little miracles in all of our lives. He respects our choices but will do everything in His power to help us make the right choices that will lead us to have all of the same blessings He has. I love Him.
Soeur Kimball

June 30, 2013 - Noeline

Every week is so unpredictable.  That includes this week.

I spent Wednesday night at the hospital with my companion because she got a call that her niece was severely sick and would soon die so we got permission to go to the hospital. Soeur Tehiva was so troubled and sad.  She has raised her niece since she was just little and plus her niece is handicapped so she can't talk and can't eat by herself. Soeur Tehiva has fed her and changed her and bathed her since she was little, so it was one of the sadest things to see her this little handicaped girl with a lot of tubes and with a severe lung infection.  We got home that night and Soeur Tehiva was very distressed so we asked for our Bishop to come and give her a blessing. That is a great thing about being in such a little Island. All ward members live close.  And even I could feel the love and support of our Heavenlly Father when Bishop gave the blessing;

We also found two new investigators this week. One is Noeline, the sister of a lady in our ward, Rachel.  Noeline has had an incredibly hard life.  I find that lots of peoples family lives here are no good. There is beating and abuse and Noeline has had a lot of it.  All she wants is the joy that she sees in her sister for her and her son, and I don't blame her. We had our first lesson with her and she felt the spirit.  We didn't really need to say much just that we knew it would be only through Christ that she would be able to cleanse her heart and her life and take away all of the hate for her abusers. She said she is not yet ready to get married to her boyfriend who she lives with and that is what makes me sad, and could you please pray for her that she will have the faith necessary to obey the law of chastity?

We also got a new mission president.  His name is president Bize and he is French. He is great and I already love him and his wife.  I feel like we will have a little more organization with him because he was a CEO.  It should be interesting.

This week I learned about sacrafice.  I realized that there were some things I am asked to do that I know are right that I have a hard time with. For example sometimes it is hard for me to be all the time nice to my companion or other people that are mean to me. It is hard for me to love them and sometimes it is hard for me to have enough faith to not fear. I realized that I had not fully submitted my will to the Lord. I wasn't completely humble enough to do everything, even the little tiny things He has asked me. This week I fully submitted. I will no longer have hard feelings or stubborn thoughts when I am asked to do something. I will just do it. It was so good because I was so much more able to feel the love and charity for other people and just be happy. I know that even though it is the hardest choice, humility is always the best choice. President Eyring talked about pavilions that block us from being close the presence of God and pride was definetely my pavilion, But I am letting it go little by little through my faith in my Savior Jesus Christ.

Don't let the little things block the Savior from being in your life.

I love you all and I hope that you do safe and good things including remembering at what point you have been blessed in your life to have the gospel.
Soeur Kimball

June 23, 2014 - Hemana's Baptism

Four things about my life
1. I wore a fanny pack all this week because i found it in the cuboard and it is super convenient.
2. I took up the sport of jumproping because my companion doesn't like to exercise so I can't run anymore.
3. I ate dinner literally on top of the mountain Sunday night with a family in our ward.
4. Two young men in our ward that were inactive and unworthy came back to church and became priests! I cried

A lot of things happened this week actually.  Wednesday was the baptism of Hemana. He has been taking the lessons for six or so months because his daughter was dating a mormon. He had a testimony before I came here, but it was us who had to help him live the commandements.  He got married the same day as his baptism and I was so happy. His wife matilda. She is just very reserved and hesitant and wasn't ready to leave some things of the world to get baptized. I know we will continue with her and she will continue to progress by developing her faith.

We invited a lot of people and we had many investigators come to the baptism of Hemana.  It was incredible and after he bore his testimony it touched a lot of people.

The wife of our mission leader isn't a member and she came too.  Their son Heiro is handicaped but he can understand everything and tries to respond. I started crying because he was in the very back and at the end of the baptism we sang I am a child of God; heiro sang every single word the best he could. Normally he doesn't talk but he did the best he could to sing at the end of the baptism and it was so touching.

ASecond great miracle was that we had a huge family home evening program at the church in order to invite our investigators and we combined our ward with the ward of the Elders just next to us and we had 45 investigators that came.  Serioiusly, in our ward the new converts are so powerful. Tthey invited so many of their neighbors and just everybody they knew. I was so proud of them and we found people that are interested to take the lessons.

So right now in our sector we teach a lot of teenager boys and it is so hard because they don't have respect for us and so they make jokes out of everything.  I feel like I am going to have so...so...so much patience by the end of this transfer haha.

Sometimes I am jealous of the people who get transfered in our mission all of the time because they get to see lots of the island but in the end I am so happy to stay for a long time in my sectors because it takes a long time to love people and learn how you can give and sacrifice everything. It is funny because I imagined and promised that I would give everything I could to the Lord on my mission, but part of the mission is learning how to give everything.  It is so hard to be completely consecrated, but I know each and each day I am learning more and more how I can leave my other concerns and wordly wants to be an even better instrument in the hands of the Lord.

We are so blessed to be part of this work in these Latter Days.
Soeur Kimball

June 16, 2014 - Surfer Man George

I got transfered to work at the temple and then President was inspired that I needed to stay in my sector of Tipaerui so I am staying.

Things were hard this week but one of my companions got transfered so now we are only two companions and it is great.

Apparently I have to stay in Tipaerui for a reason but I am not sure what that reason is, but I couldn't have been happier. There was a kind of mistake and so now I and my companion live in a huge house with four bedrooms all alone, and we each have our own bathroom, so I am not complaining.

This week our we had a lot of investigators that came to church and I was so happy. I was especially happy that our investigator George came.  He is the crazy surfer man that may or may not be drugged all the time. It is hard to tell, but he came and he loved it.  We found him by doing door by door and he makes me laugh. He surfs to feel closer to God and he has a bible for surfers.  I should send a picture of him to you guys.

Also this wednesday we have a baptism for Hemana and I am so excited. He is very incredible and I know he is ready to be part of the true church of God.  He even sacrificed working on Sunday. He is getting married Wednesday too so he can be worthy.  He is one of the most humble men I have met and I am grateful for his example for me. Unfortunately, his wife doesn't want to get baptized yet even though she has taken all of the missionary lessons. After Hemana is baptized we are going to continue to work with her because I love her too.

Also this week we ate with Bishop and his family.  They are so nice and I loved the raw fish.  We ate with a new convert named Saloman. He comes to my english class faithfully every Saturday. It was great and I am so grateful here for a bishop who supports us and tells us we can come over when ever we want and beg for food.

This week we will be on the search for more investigators so we can find others who are prepared. Please pray so that we will be able to find people who are prepared in our sector.  I love you
soeur Kimball