I have probably reached the happiest point on my mission. Is it still really hard and stressful? Oh yes, but I couldn't be more happy. Things are going great. I never realized what a difference it makes to have the support of the members, but seriously, our members are amazing here. I saw so many miracles this week so here we go.
Yesterday we had a huge concert with all the missionaries in Tahiti in our stake center with all of our stake and the amis (investigators). It was awesome. We have a really great program where we sing a bunch of hymns and there is a projection and missionaries bear testimony. Since I am from Faaa I was asked to give the closing prayer. I honestly was so so terrified because I knew I had to say it in Tahitian from the moment I was asked. Sometimes when the Americans speak Tahitian that really shocks people and touches especially the amis because they don't expect it. You immediately earn respect here if you speak it, and so here I was sitting and I knew I had to give a really good prayer in Tahitian to close the program and I was so so scared because I knew what an affect it could have if I did it correctly. I was praying so hard I wouldn't totally ruin everything. I gave the prayer in Tahitian and I am not really sure what happened during it but all I know is I was able to say things smoothly and correctly and just like a Tahitian with sincerity. The thing you have to understand is that here people give their Tahitian prayers about 100 mph and so if you want to sound like them you have to say it like that too. After I finished everybody got really noisy and freaked out because they didn't expect it. I can't tell you how many people asked me for my picture afterwards. It was so funny, but seriously it touches people so so much when you speak Tahitian here. I was just grateful I could be a tool in the hands of the Lord to share his spirit for people who prefer Tahiain over French.
Next thing this week. My sector is so so awesome. Yes it is very dirty and full of people drinking and smoking but there are so, so many people to teach. I love it and my companion is super optimistic and funny. I laugh so much every day because we do some really funny things, and because members and investigators here and just everyone in general have visions all the time and I find a lot of them funny.
This week we continued to teach Poema who is getting baptized in 2 weeks. She has now given up cigarettes for one week so she can be baptized. She is so amazing and so willing to sacrifice anything to be baptized. It makes me so happy to so the change in their family. Her husband was inactive but is now coming back to the church. We were doing a lesson about the plan of salvation and at the end he looked at us and asked with all sincerity if he could still make it back to live with God again. Even after leaving the church for a time. I told the story of the prodigal son and how when he came back the father accepted him with loving arms. He was so relieved to know that he was still on track to receive eternal life. I really love them so much.
Which leads me to my thought for today. I read a talk today that really changed my perspective of things especially the Atonement. This week I reevaluated my relationship with Jesus Christ. I realized that I have a lot of faith in Him and His mercy to make up the difference for our sins after all we can do.
I realized that I am not sure sometimes if I have the faith that He can save me from myself personally and my imperfections. For everyone in Tahiti I am positive this is the case, but it is just so hard for me sometimes to see myself and my potential when I am constantly faced with all of my errors and weaknesses. I don't always follow the spirit and sometimes I make stupid mistakes that could have prevented me from helping this work move forth. And the thing is I think a lot of us think this way. We are constantly missing the blessings of the fortifying and enabling power of the Atonement because we don't think we are worthy. We just don't measure up, and how sad is that. All that He asks us is our best. I loved an example I heard this week. Sometimes we just wait and wait and keep striving for perfection but it is never going to happen. It is not like sick people wait to get better so that they can be able to take the medicine, and it is just like that for the Atonement.
I am so grateful for my mission because I have grown so much more close to my Savior and in doing so I have so much more love for myself. I know I am good enough, because He thinks I am good enough. I don't know how many times I have struggled with hating myself in my life because I thought I haven't reached the bar or the level of goodness that I thought I should have reached, and now I realize that was never the point. I still have all of my weaknesses and faults but it is ok, because I know He is willing to work with me to fix all of those things. Little by little. Oh, how He is merciful. If there is anything we should learn in life it is how to use the Atonement in our lives. Every day. I love the Lord and I know this is His church and kingdom.
I couldn't be more humbled to be His servant.
Love Soeur Kimball
Monday, April 28, 2014
March 18, 2014 - 1st Transfer, Tipaurui
Hey, so yes it is true. I got transferred. I was so sad, but happy at the same time. It is my first transfer. For six months I served in one valley of Tahiti. Everything I know about Tahiti is what I saw in my little neighborhood which is not that much. I said my goodbyes and I cried and everything and people gave me baskets and seashell necklaces and now I am serving with my new Tahitian companion Soeur Sommers in Tipaurui.
Oh boy is it different. I couldn't be more excited. Soeur Sommers has only been here four weeks so I will be training her for the next eight weeks. It will be my second time training and oh how can I tell you that training is a very humbling experience, especially when you are asked to train people that speak the language better than you and understand the Tahitian people better than you. I have already learned a lot.
Anyway, let me tell you about my new sector. It is really awesome because it is in the city which means there are so many more people to talk to. I absolutely love it. There are tons of apartement buildings which means more people to preach the gospel to. I got to the point in my old sector where I had talked with almost every single house and knew almost every single person by name so you can see how everything now is just so thrilling.
There is so much potential here and I think we are going to see a lot of miracles. The ward is super focused on missionary work and even now they have a plan to give away 170 books of Mormon. This morning for my first lesson in the sector we scheduled a baptism for next week for the wife of a member in our ward who had already had the lessons. I have already seen so many miracles and I am so excited to see the people in Tipaurui grow their faith in Christ by living his teachings.
I was super sad to leave my cute French companion but I know she will continue to do great things in Tuauru. I have really grown to love her.
So, I guess that is my life right now and I love it. This transfer I really want to be able to get better at understanding Tahitian, because I can speak it alright but understanding is a whole other ball game, especially when they are papis who speak really fast, really really slurred and really softly. I know the Lord will help me with my endeavor so that I might be able to continue to help others.
This transfer I really want to be able to enjoy every moment and just love the people. We had a conference where an area president talked to us and said that we need to be masters in teaching the doctrine of the Father and His nature, because it is only when others feel of His love for them, and understand truly their divine nature as children of God with a purpose in life, that they can change. I pray that I can be able to transmit that love that He has for His children. Truly our work here is just to remind people of who they really are so that they can embrace the fulness of blessings that this gospel has to offer.
I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that Jesus Christ is at the head of this church. How blessed we are for what we have been given.
Soeur Kimball
Oh boy is it different. I couldn't be more excited. Soeur Sommers has only been here four weeks so I will be training her for the next eight weeks. It will be my second time training and oh how can I tell you that training is a very humbling experience, especially when you are asked to train people that speak the language better than you and understand the Tahitian people better than you. I have already learned a lot.
Anyway, let me tell you about my new sector. It is really awesome because it is in the city which means there are so many more people to talk to. I absolutely love it. There are tons of apartement buildings which means more people to preach the gospel to. I got to the point in my old sector where I had talked with almost every single house and knew almost every single person by name so you can see how everything now is just so thrilling.
There is so much potential here and I think we are going to see a lot of miracles. The ward is super focused on missionary work and even now they have a plan to give away 170 books of Mormon. This morning for my first lesson in the sector we scheduled a baptism for next week for the wife of a member in our ward who had already had the lessons. I have already seen so many miracles and I am so excited to see the people in Tipaurui grow their faith in Christ by living his teachings.
I was super sad to leave my cute French companion but I know she will continue to do great things in Tuauru. I have really grown to love her.
So, I guess that is my life right now and I love it. This transfer I really want to be able to get better at understanding Tahitian, because I can speak it alright but understanding is a whole other ball game, especially when they are papis who speak really fast, really really slurred and really softly. I know the Lord will help me with my endeavor so that I might be able to continue to help others.
This transfer I really want to be able to enjoy every moment and just love the people. We had a conference where an area president talked to us and said that we need to be masters in teaching the doctrine of the Father and His nature, because it is only when others feel of His love for them, and understand truly their divine nature as children of God with a purpose in life, that they can change. I pray that I can be able to transmit that love that He has for His children. Truly our work here is just to remind people of who they really are so that they can embrace the fulness of blessings that this gospel has to offer.
I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that Jesus Christ is at the head of this church. How blessed we are for what we have been given.
Soeur Kimball
March 10, 2014 - Vaiarii
Ok you guys, so to understand this week you have to look at this photo. Lots of things happened this week but I want to just talk about this one person, Vaiarii Raihauti. I know in this photo he looks like a murderer and like he is angry but really he is a great kid and right now you are all going to hear the story of his conversion. He is the one next to me in the corner. I promise he isn't actually scary. It has been crazy.
The conversion of Vaiarii starts in December last year. I and my companion were in their yard to teach a lesson to his sister but we had never met him. I don't know what happened but for some reason he decided to come to the lesson and hear us with his brother and part of his family. I think I wrote about it in another email, anyway we taught a lesson about the Restoration and invited everyone to read the Book of Mormon to see if our message was true. The next week we dropped off a Book of Mormon. Out of all of his family it was really only him who cared. The rest didn't really feel like finding out but Vaiarii read the Book of Mormon and prayed sincerely like we asked him. At this point he was super super shy but we would just come and visit him anyway. We invited this brother in our ward who you see in the picture to come with us to the lessons and he started inviting Vaiarii to family home evening and started teaching him too. Vaiarii told us he prayed about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and had a really strong impression but he really had a hard describing it, so of course we continued the lessons with him for the next 2 months and he would come to church with us every single week or with Dan ( the man in the photo). He was still really shy and scared of us. I think just because we are two foreign girls but we finally got him to open up and he decided he wanted to be baptized. He didn't tell us everything because he was embarrassed but he really wants to go on a mission too. He is 19 years old and now is preparing to go to the temple in one year so he can go on a mission and serve the Lord.
I told him now we are going to use him and he will be the member fellow-shipper for all of our amis. haha. He thinks I am psycho... the poor kid. Two days ago he bore his testimony and it was so powerful. He shared his gratitude for the Lord for having showed him His church. He was so sincere.
I share this story for two reasons.
1. We taught all of his family and it was only him who believed and acted on his impressions, which shows us that even though the gospel is true not everyone is going to accept. It is just our duty to invite everyone so they can decide for themselves and understand the goodness of the gospel for themselves.
2. Member fellow-shippers are so so so important. Without Dan there I don't think Vaiarii would have been converted. The testimonies of members and their experiences really validate our teachings and relate to others.
I know the church is true and I am so happy that Vaiarii is so happy now. I am so happy to have been able to help the Lord in His work. He is so good.
The conversion of Vaiarii starts in December last year. I and my companion were in their yard to teach a lesson to his sister but we had never met him. I don't know what happened but for some reason he decided to come to the lesson and hear us with his brother and part of his family. I think I wrote about it in another email, anyway we taught a lesson about the Restoration and invited everyone to read the Book of Mormon to see if our message was true. The next week we dropped off a Book of Mormon. Out of all of his family it was really only him who cared. The rest didn't really feel like finding out but Vaiarii read the Book of Mormon and prayed sincerely like we asked him. At this point he was super super shy but we would just come and visit him anyway. We invited this brother in our ward who you see in the picture to come with us to the lessons and he started inviting Vaiarii to family home evening and started teaching him too. Vaiarii told us he prayed about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and had a really strong impression but he really had a hard describing it, so of course we continued the lessons with him for the next 2 months and he would come to church with us every single week or with Dan ( the man in the photo). He was still really shy and scared of us. I think just because we are two foreign girls but we finally got him to open up and he decided he wanted to be baptized. He didn't tell us everything because he was embarrassed but he really wants to go on a mission too. He is 19 years old and now is preparing to go to the temple in one year so he can go on a mission and serve the Lord.
I told him now we are going to use him and he will be the member fellow-shipper for all of our amis. haha. He thinks I am psycho... the poor kid. Two days ago he bore his testimony and it was so powerful. He shared his gratitude for the Lord for having showed him His church. He was so sincere.
I share this story for two reasons.
1. We taught all of his family and it was only him who believed and acted on his impressions, which shows us that even though the gospel is true not everyone is going to accept. It is just our duty to invite everyone so they can decide for themselves and understand the goodness of the gospel for themselves.
2. Member fellow-shippers are so so so important. Without Dan there I don't think Vaiarii would have been converted. The testimonies of members and their experiences really validate our teachings and relate to others.
I know the church is true and I am so happy that Vaiarii is so happy now. I am so happy to have been able to help the Lord in His work. He is so good.
Tahiti February 24, 2014
This week was great. First of all we had the baptism of Tepiu and Tachyna the two girls with inactive parents. They were completely adorable. It was I and my companion who had to plan the baptism and do the talks and everything. I really was so so worried that everything wasn't going to turn out. It was kind of a last minute scramble and then I was so worried that nobody would come and there wouldn't be any support and the chapel would be empty. The good news is I was wrong. We had a great day. I guess you would expect that a baptism of a new convert would be an incredibly spiritual and amazing experience, and it totally was but just not in the way that you would expect it. As soon as the program started I just felt so peaceful. Many of the members came and they brought a ton of food too. I was so so relieved. I almost started crying, and I even sang a musical number with my favorite primary member in our ward. I don't know how many times I had prayed for everything to turn out alright and I would just like to tell all of you that the Lord answers prayers. The spirit filled the chapel and it was so evident that the Lord was so happy His two young daughters Tepiu and Tachyna entered the gate of baptism.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
January 27, 2014 - Things Change
Hey you guys. Things here are great. And by great I mean really really hard but that is why it is good. I read a really good article this week by Elder Scott about how to have a happy life and I really hope you guys go and read it. It really inspired me to just be happy in the midst of trials. Everyone has trials and no one wants to hear about yours. That was probably my favorite quote in the discord haha.
Well anyway, yes it is true now, I am training. Her name is Soeur Nciete and she is from France and she is really really pretty and adorable. She tells me all the time I am too careless but she is still awesome. It has been really hard here. The members are still really unsure of me and don't really trust me yet because they really loved and trusted Soeur Ferrence and they kind of think I don't know what I am doing but I know that will come with the time. All I know is we work really hard. Every day we try to talk to everyone that is in our street and because of that we have been really blessed. We found lots of new investigators and started to teach them. When you are obedient the miracles come.
We decided to hike up this street that I had only been to one time before because no one was home normally, but this time I felt like it might be a good thing to do. We hiked up and immediately found a mom with her two girls. She was really nice and told us we could come back and teach a lesson with her. It was actually way cool because her mom had just died that morning so we were able to testify to how she would see her mom again. I know Heavenly Father wanted her to know that and have that comfort. It is so crazy how Heavenly Father loves us each one so individually and cares about the littlest things. A quote I really loved this week I read was that Heavenly Father when He sees us suffering even though He knows that it will all turn out good in the end doesn't just say "get over it and keep going". He really suffers with us. He understands us and it really makes him sad every time we are sad. That has really helped me. The fact that I am struggling right now means just that I am learning and lot. And oh boy can I tell you how much I am learning about humility. I am always being humbled almost every single day, and yes it hurts but I know it is making me a better person. Here is a poem President Monson shared this past conference that I loved.
Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.
The further sky, the greater length.
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow
If that poem is true then I must be becoming a really strong tree. haha. But I am grateful really. Things might be challenging but in the end I would choose the harder times. What would we be if we never had trials to help us change?
Anyway I hope you know I am really doing everything I can think of to help others come to Christ. The most effective and best thing I have found I can do is just to love everyone; Love them despite all of their addictions and bad manners haha. This week I realized I really really love them, especially everyone in my sector. Even the ones that are mean to me. Their souls are precious in the eyes of God.
Love you all.
The little things make the big difference.
Well anyway, yes it is true now, I am training. Her name is Soeur Nciete and she is from France and she is really really pretty and adorable. She tells me all the time I am too careless but she is still awesome. It has been really hard here. The members are still really unsure of me and don't really trust me yet because they really loved and trusted Soeur Ferrence and they kind of think I don't know what I am doing but I know that will come with the time. All I know is we work really hard. Every day we try to talk to everyone that is in our street and because of that we have been really blessed. We found lots of new investigators and started to teach them. When you are obedient the miracles come.
We decided to hike up this street that I had only been to one time before because no one was home normally, but this time I felt like it might be a good thing to do. We hiked up and immediately found a mom with her two girls. She was really nice and told us we could come back and teach a lesson with her. It was actually way cool because her mom had just died that morning so we were able to testify to how she would see her mom again. I know Heavenly Father wanted her to know that and have that comfort. It is so crazy how Heavenly Father loves us each one so individually and cares about the littlest things. A quote I really loved this week I read was that Heavenly Father when He sees us suffering even though He knows that it will all turn out good in the end doesn't just say "get over it and keep going". He really suffers with us. He understands us and it really makes him sad every time we are sad. That has really helped me. The fact that I am struggling right now means just that I am learning and lot. And oh boy can I tell you how much I am learning about humility. I am always being humbled almost every single day, and yes it hurts but I know it is making me a better person. Here is a poem President Monson shared this past conference that I loved.
Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.
The further sky, the greater length.
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow
If that poem is true then I must be becoming a really strong tree. haha. But I am grateful really. Things might be challenging but in the end I would choose the harder times. What would we be if we never had trials to help us change?
Anyway I hope you know I am really doing everything I can think of to help others come to Christ. The most effective and best thing I have found I can do is just to love everyone; Love them despite all of their addictions and bad manners haha. This week I realized I really really love them, especially everyone in my sector. Even the ones that are mean to me. Their souls are precious in the eyes of God.
Love you all.
The little things make the big difference.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
January 13, 2014 Transfers
Guess what happened this week/ My companion and trainer Soeur Ference got transfered. I was totally sad. She is now one of my best friends, and you know what that means? It means I got called to train! I am now training a girl who just arrived from France. What does that mean? It means three things.
1. She has a French accent and speaks sophisticated French so I can't really understand her.
2. My French is going to improve because I am going to learn from her. Since right now all I know is the ghetto French that people talk here, but it is the best kind frankly.
3. I am completely in charge of my sector and I am completely teriffied.
But it is ok because I know the Lord will be with me. I really loved my last companion and part of the reason I love her so much is because we passed through so many trials together, members critiquing us, impossible expectations, a lack of investigators and a lack of lessons. It is totally ok because I really did my best and I know I did affect peoples lives even if they don't really feel like they want to act right now.
That is all changing right now because we found so many new investigators this week. I really can't believe all the miracles. One of the things I have learned here is just to not have fear. Think of how many things we don't do in our lives because we are scared, and every time after we didn't do it we regret it. The theme for this next transfer in Tuauru is faith. I am really just going to talk to everyone and ask them if they want to improve their lives and I am really just going to testify to them. For example, on Thursday I saw a little Chinese man holding a big bunny in the middle of the road and he was totally scared of me because I was about twice his height but I scheduled a lesson with him for next week. The things I see here are always so funny. I wish I had a picture, anyway I will tell you a few of the miracles I saw this week.
On Saturday me and Soeur Ferrence passed a man walking to his house with a bunch of bread and we felt like we should go back and just talk to him. We did and he said he would like to hear our message. We went to the bishops wife to ask if she could come with us to the lesson but she said we shouldn't go because the man we had met was no good to teach. Well I had just read that day the talk by President Monson that says we should never see people as they are now but their potential and so I had us go teach him. Luckily we got his daughter and sister to come to the lesson and we immeadiately felt like we should talk about baptism. Turns out he totally wants to change his life and get baptized. He already stopped smoking and drinking without us meeting him. We have another lesson with him this week and I hope we will be able to fix a baptismal date for him. It just shows you that you never know who is ready. You really can never judge people. We are really more than our weaknesses or our faults like President Holland says. That is also my other theme for these next ten weeks in Tuauru. I am just going to love everyone. No matter if they say mean things to me or make fun of my French. I will just love them because they are all chidlren of our Heavenly Father and have divine potential no matter their situation.
Next big news.
We found a family to teach! It was the last lesson I taught with Soeur Ferrence and it was amazing. The Spirit was so strong and we talked about the importance of the gospel in the family. I really hope they continue to progress. It is really hard to have a lot of investigators that start on the path to becoming members but stop progressing because of various obstacles.
The biggest thing to remember is just that no matter what happens we know the Lord will win in the end. We are hastening a work that can't be stopped. In that sense there is realy no way to fail. So FAAITOITO OUTOU
Love you all and I still can't understand Tahitian but it is ok.
Soeur Kimball
1. She has a French accent and speaks sophisticated French so I can't really understand her.
2. My French is going to improve because I am going to learn from her. Since right now all I know is the ghetto French that people talk here, but it is the best kind frankly.
3. I am completely in charge of my sector and I am completely teriffied.
But it is ok because I know the Lord will be with me. I really loved my last companion and part of the reason I love her so much is because we passed through so many trials together, members critiquing us, impossible expectations, a lack of investigators and a lack of lessons. It is totally ok because I really did my best and I know I did affect peoples lives even if they don't really feel like they want to act right now.
That is all changing right now because we found so many new investigators this week. I really can't believe all the miracles. One of the things I have learned here is just to not have fear. Think of how many things we don't do in our lives because we are scared, and every time after we didn't do it we regret it. The theme for this next transfer in Tuauru is faith. I am really just going to talk to everyone and ask them if they want to improve their lives and I am really just going to testify to them. For example, on Thursday I saw a little Chinese man holding a big bunny in the middle of the road and he was totally scared of me because I was about twice his height but I scheduled a lesson with him for next week. The things I see here are always so funny. I wish I had a picture, anyway I will tell you a few of the miracles I saw this week.
On Saturday me and Soeur Ferrence passed a man walking to his house with a bunch of bread and we felt like we should go back and just talk to him. We did and he said he would like to hear our message. We went to the bishops wife to ask if she could come with us to the lesson but she said we shouldn't go because the man we had met was no good to teach. Well I had just read that day the talk by President Monson that says we should never see people as they are now but their potential and so I had us go teach him. Luckily we got his daughter and sister to come to the lesson and we immeadiately felt like we should talk about baptism. Turns out he totally wants to change his life and get baptized. He already stopped smoking and drinking without us meeting him. We have another lesson with him this week and I hope we will be able to fix a baptismal date for him. It just shows you that you never know who is ready. You really can never judge people. We are really more than our weaknesses or our faults like President Holland says. That is also my other theme for these next ten weeks in Tuauru. I am just going to love everyone. No matter if they say mean things to me or make fun of my French. I will just love them because they are all chidlren of our Heavenly Father and have divine potential no matter their situation.
Next big news.
We found a family to teach! It was the last lesson I taught with Soeur Ferrence and it was amazing. The Spirit was so strong and we talked about the importance of the gospel in the family. I really hope they continue to progress. It is really hard to have a lot of investigators that start on the path to becoming members but stop progressing because of various obstacles.
The biggest thing to remember is just that no matter what happens we know the Lord will win in the end. We are hastening a work that can't be stopped. In that sense there is realy no way to fail. So FAAITOITO OUTOU
Love you all and I still can't understand Tahitian but it is ok.
Soeur Kimball
January 6, 2014
It was so crazy for me to think that this new year of 2014 I will be in Tahiti. I really love the new year because it gives me more of a hope to accomplish things and just progress in general. I really plan on this year being a fantastic year. I hope to grow in my testimony and in my ability to help and serve others. I hope to grow in my ability to love other children of God and the ability to have patience with myself and my weaknesses. I hope to really know my Savior even better so that I can help others more.
Well, I am not going to lie, despite that I might love new years, it is not exactly the best time for missionary work here. In fact, this week in the beginning might of been the hardest two days of my life. I was really so discouraged, and it is pretty hard for me to be depressed. Basically, everyone in our sector was drunk, and all of our investigators took a break to party as well, so you can see we didn't really have anything to do except street contacting. Which means going house by house and yelling "Iorana" then waiting for someone to come out and say that they are too busy to talk even though it is clear they are not really doing anything...actually that only happens sometimes. Most of the time we just talk to the people and ask if they would like to have a message that would strengthen their family and help them come to Christ. They usually say no in a nice way and we go one our way. This week we tried a different contacting approach called "crazy search for the people that were already prepared by the Lord". Basically we took a photo around of someone being baptized and told people that God wanted them to be baptized in his true church so they could be cleansed by their sins and really follow Jesus Christ. It sounds bold and crazy but I actually really loved it. We were just really honest with people, and if they were really prepared they would recognize the spirit and want to know more. Did anyone accept? No, but it is ok; maybe it wasn't the good moment. The funniest contact of the week goes to a young girl. She was probably my age and after explaining and testifying of the baptism she interrupted us and said " um hey actually can you guys talk to me another time because I am too hungry to talk because I am hungover"...not sure if we will go talk to her again or not.
Do not think that my week ended like it started, because I can truly testify that when we are almost at the end of your rope the Lord gives us Miracles. One of our investigators Marciano had a lesson scheduled for 4 o clock on Saturday, and yes he came thankfully, but who else came with him, three new members of his family who were interested. It was totally awesome. We taught the lesson of Joseph Smith and we tried our best to really make it powerful. The spirit was truly there and all accepted to read the book of Mormon. On Sunday they also came to church for the first time just like that. Usually we have to drag people to get them to church. It was so crazy and I really hope they continue to choose to accept the gospel in their lives. We will see this week. Other miracles that happened are that we found maybe four new investigators because of contacting and taught one lesson with them each. My favorite was a cute old couple named Glorian and Allan who love to accept any missionaries of any religion. The lesson was in Tahitian so that was a little scary but we simply told them there was a prophet today. The Spirit was definately there also because they were willing to listen.
So my story for you is that even when it feels like you are about to die and you cant go anymore, you can, and I know good things will come. The Lord will never try us more when we are able. He knows our limits and our capacity. He loves us. I know that.
I am grateful for the gospel in my life and that it gives me the strength to continue.
Love you guys
Soeur Kimball
Well, I am not going to lie, despite that I might love new years, it is not exactly the best time for missionary work here. In fact, this week in the beginning might of been the hardest two days of my life. I was really so discouraged, and it is pretty hard for me to be depressed. Basically, everyone in our sector was drunk, and all of our investigators took a break to party as well, so you can see we didn't really have anything to do except street contacting. Which means going house by house and yelling "Iorana" then waiting for someone to come out and say that they are too busy to talk even though it is clear they are not really doing anything...actually that only happens sometimes. Most of the time we just talk to the people and ask if they would like to have a message that would strengthen their family and help them come to Christ. They usually say no in a nice way and we go one our way. This week we tried a different contacting approach called "crazy search for the people that were already prepared by the Lord". Basically we took a photo around of someone being baptized and told people that God wanted them to be baptized in his true church so they could be cleansed by their sins and really follow Jesus Christ. It sounds bold and crazy but I actually really loved it. We were just really honest with people, and if they were really prepared they would recognize the spirit and want to know more. Did anyone accept? No, but it is ok; maybe it wasn't the good moment. The funniest contact of the week goes to a young girl. She was probably my age and after explaining and testifying of the baptism she interrupted us and said " um hey actually can you guys talk to me another time because I am too hungry to talk because I am hungover"...not sure if we will go talk to her again or not.
Do not think that my week ended like it started, because I can truly testify that when we are almost at the end of your rope the Lord gives us Miracles. One of our investigators Marciano had a lesson scheduled for 4 o clock on Saturday, and yes he came thankfully, but who else came with him, three new members of his family who were interested. It was totally awesome. We taught the lesson of Joseph Smith and we tried our best to really make it powerful. The spirit was truly there and all accepted to read the book of Mormon. On Sunday they also came to church for the first time just like that. Usually we have to drag people to get them to church. It was so crazy and I really hope they continue to choose to accept the gospel in their lives. We will see this week. Other miracles that happened are that we found maybe four new investigators because of contacting and taught one lesson with them each. My favorite was a cute old couple named Glorian and Allan who love to accept any missionaries of any religion. The lesson was in Tahitian so that was a little scary but we simply told them there was a prophet today. The Spirit was definately there also because they were willing to listen.
So my story for you is that even when it feels like you are about to die and you cant go anymore, you can, and I know good things will come. The Lord will never try us more when we are able. He knows our limits and our capacity. He loves us. I know that.
I am grateful for the gospel in my life and that it gives me the strength to continue.
Love you guys
Soeur Kimball
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