Week 74 - On fait avec

Shout out to Elder Smith for blasting jazz music today while we played soccer that was funny

We had a lesson with Aduché this week. Started out sad cus he was like "yeah my reading in the Book of Mormon isn't going how I want" so I was like "dang you didn't read AT ALL ? " he said "no no, I read 19 chapters but still" I was like WHAAAT?! 

Then we had the lesson, I poured my whole soul into it, literally give 110% to base it on Christ and teach from the book of Mormon, absolutely WILD. And when we talked about baptism I was seriously focusing so so hard to just teach the covenant and how it's all about our relationship with God

THEN IT WAS INSANE cus it was the msot effort I've ever put into any lesson ever and at the end I was just like "so what do you think" not even inviting him to do anything, and he was like "that was beautiful, I can't find anything wrong with it. Thank you" THEN he goes "so when can I get baptized" I was like WHAT?!

Then he was like "i don't know why I'm emotional..." and was crying and just kept saying thank you, I really felt it. 

REALLY cool because we didn't just tell him that he'll get to see his dead family member again, we didn't give him the answer to a life-long question he's had, it wasn't anything earth shattering like that. It was purely and simply the gospel of Jesus Christ, and because it was true and he was seeking it, it touched him and he felt it. Absolutely wild for me to experience. AND HE WAS GRATEFUL FOR IT!!!! SO GRATEFUL! So yeah he's getting baptized next month

I realized to say the church isn't true is like saying pigs fly, because sure of course you can choose to believe that all you want. but not only is that incorrect, but it's literally impossible. Like cat in the hat said "yohr not just wrong..." I'll let you finish the quote

Also sorry I wanted to apologize about the prayer thing I said last week. ALL PRAYERS ARE GREAT. My email is not a safe space okay

... On the contrary...

Ephesians 4:32 "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you." this is a description of all the missionaries I serve with, they are incredible. Absolutely highest honor to be called to the missionaries on the French side of the BBM.

I had a BAM realization moment this week. Cus sometimes I'm wonder why different cultures seem to be more religious than others. Then I realized - they ACT ON THEIR FAITH. Everytime I ask people here how they show God their faith, it's ALWAYS prayer and reading the scriptures. 

People in the Caribbean do not believe in God just because "culture" brainwashed them to believe, but it's because the culture taught them to read and pray. And so in doing those things, their faith stays alive and grows. Then BOOM you've got a faithful culture.

Contrast that to some northern American home where a kid grows up never reading never praying at all never going to church, cus it's "weird" . Of COURSE people are going to be more believing here, because they actually nourish their testimony

Anyways there wasn't really a point to all that just some thoughts I had this week. Idk what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life. Have a great week

Week 73 - The Manny will not be televised

This week was Carnaval wooo yeah

I love the unspoken road rules here, flashing headlights as a "go ahead" and the honking that means "thank you", it makes me feel so happy More law=more choices=more results aka MORE POTENTIAL TO BE HAPPY

Bah écoute. We live in a fallen world. When life gets boring, don't worry. It won't take long for something wack to happen

Look idk too much about Carnaval but there was a car completely on fire in the middle of the road

It was so fun to have a discussion with Mathieu. He's in his 30's and a CEO dude and all that and he started to read the Book of Mormon and he's now all like "I'm starting to see how I was addicted to money... And I see it in others too! But now money is like, no big deal at all. Like I don't even care about my car idc idc" and he's dang funny. Really loud guy. He was asking about intimacy and was like "okay but like.... Do you guys think there's a spirituality to it?" and we were like "yeh" and he was like "THANK YOU I knew it!" so yeah we taught Him that it's actually a power given from God. it's really cool to teach this guy, as he was very scuked into world before, so He's got a very unique perspective. So he's always very blown away to learn the simple things like that. 

Oh also during that lesson, there was a mom and daughter that walked by and saw sr Temaiana's flower (and face) and said hi, as they passed, and I could tell they were wantign to kinda say something and they did, they mentioned how they noticed sr Temaiana was polynisian. 

Anyways, I started taking to them in English because turns out they were Vietnamese and I felt the spirit very strongly as I talked with them.  asked if they belive in Jesus Christ. I really felt good in talking to the daughter who was high-school aged just cus I had the chance to build her up and stuff

It was very cool because it's kinda hard for her in school cus she's very different than everyone else, so the fact that sr Temaiana was also different looking (Polynesian), the common ground of being different formed a connection. 

Differences are attractive!!!! 

I've realized more how we really do learn every day, just not in the way we realize. It's like we're just racking up XP everyday literally by just waking up and living life, in doing the most mundane tasks sometimes, but still we're GAINING. The learning doesn't come from the simple acts you do but it's from the whole process of living. Then from. Time to time you get enough xp and bam you get one of those more big "revelatory" moments. But all the other days are just as much important, it's all the same amount of xp just in different formats

I've been saying our companionship prayer at the end of the day in English to help sr Temaiana learn more English and it's really impacted me because well for obvious reasons it's my native language and I don't know I've just really felt the Holy Ghost strongly as I pray. Its very from the heart and I feel it, but it's not like the "list all the missionaries then all the friends bless them then the leaders bless them list all our goals blah blah I'm going to list every thing we did today and sya thanks for it blah blah" I HATE THOSE VAIN REPITIONS no it's just been powerful to pray honestly and openly in English

Did some service this week and it was fun to hang out with one of the members in the other branch HE'S THE BEST. I was also reminded of my firm decree to NEVER have a garden one day so I'll NEVER have to weed it I've done my time

Clone Wars said "revenge is a confession of pain" the winner is the one who is kindest 

Some people we meet with came to church and they had great experiences, it made me very happy! One of them, Antony, I'd never met before because our only interaction was a phone call short discussion thing. But he practically BEGGED to come to church, and at the end of church, he expressed how strongly he felt the Spirit and said that no doubt this is not his last time coming, he's going to come EVERY Sunday. Let's goooooooooo

If you live with a Tahitian your house will never be more clean and you will never be cooked for more in your life

Week 72 - Whatchyall got goin on in Tahiti 💀

Luiaaa la Tahiti first full week with Sœur Temaiana, completed. She's pretty dang cool

And when she cooks (always) it's for 2. Aka me. She cooks for me. WHAT.

This week I was just dead tired every day, we also had zone conference so that was nice. I really really love the Bickmores (mission president and his wife) and all the missionaries. They've all changed me so much. I was talking with president Bickmore and I'd asked him what it is that he does that makes him "great", cus is missionaries speak very highly of him etc.etc. And his response really touched me, he started to say something about how he's been thinking kinda on that recently, about HIS mission president, and how five other missionaries under that mission president also became mission presidents.and so he was like "what is it that made him so great?" cus he wasn't some super talented guy that had some special cool thing to him, he was actually more softspoken and reserved. Then president bickmore got tears in his eyes as he explained that there's two things all the missionaries knew about him 1) he loved the Lord 2)he loved the missionaries

I see Jesus through president and sister Bickmore because they understand how to emulate the pure love of Christ for everyone

One day we asked Noé (returned missionary) to join us in a lesson by call. He said he had classes. We ended up doing the lesson later. Then as we're mid lesson outside of a boulangerie, LO AND BEHOLD NOÉ JOMIE IS TOWERING OVER US WHAT A LEGEND. He joined our lesson and IT WAS SO FIIIIIIRE

We also had another young adult join a lesson cus the friend, Peter, is Haitian, and the member, Malek, is as well, so Malek (also recently BAPTIZED) explained the restoration of Christ's gospel in creole and it was just so SICK

"therefore, it became expedient that we should wait" ALMA 57:3 think on that

Week 71 - No means PLEASE DON'T

Close your eyes, give me your hand

~DARLIN~

Do you feel my heart beatin, do you understand? 

DO YOU FEEEEL THE SAME?! AM I ONLY DREEEEEAMING? 

Is this burning

an eternal flame? 

We got transfer news a week ago and I will be training the new sister from Tahiti yay she is actually called to the English side of this mission but seeing that there's only 5 sisters French side and we NEEEEED more sisters, and she already has French nationality (obviously, being from tahiti), she's gonna kick it w the French siders for a bit. She flies to Guadeloupe tomorrow! Yay! We'll be here in Dugazon, the same area I've been in since July. Wheeeeew

WOAAAH Saturday was wild, we dilivered a Bible to a lady cus we put up free Bible ads on FB and then a homeless girl came up and was asking to rest and shower at the lady's house and watching that interaction go down really shook me up, good gracious I am GRATEFUL that I was born with a lotta privilege. then when we got talking with the lady (Bible lady) she invited us in, oh my goodness. She just tells her life story and it was just PAIN AFTER PAIN AFTER TRIAL AFTER TRIAL Yikes. 

And from that entire experience I became extremely grateful for the fact that I dang well have always had a roof over my head. I also really gained a deeper testimony of how IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO KEEP THE LAW OF CHASTITY MY HEAVENS IF AT ANY POINT IN THAT LADY'S LIFE STORY, ANY OF THE PEOPLE IN THE STORY HAD KEPT THE LAW OF CHASTITY, SOOOO MUCH PAIN WOULD'VE BEEN AVOIDED! 

Like seriously the HUGEST problem in Guadeloupe is that people don't keep the law of chastity, and let me TELL YOU (one reason) WHY THAT'S A PROBLEM

ALL THESE DADS JUST LEEEEAAAVE THEY JUST UP AND LEAVE THE FAMILY!!!!

If everybody would just wait until the point where they could say "YES I am ready to commit, and I'll prove it by MARRYING you for EVER" then oh my goodness, all the gazillion single moms I've talked to wouldn't have to work 6/7 days a week and run the family and do EVERYTHING and they could get some support

And BROOO then everybody's partying and drinking and so then everyone's just kinda in this stagnant state; it's a cycle of work, party, work, party, work, party etc. With NOTHING ELSE! NO DIRECTION! 

But then amen amen hallelujah right cus when the missionaries stop by its "yes I belive in God I have my Bible thank you no progression needed here" right? Cus all churches are made by man right??? Or in north America, it's 2024 so churches are outdated right???? Right ??? We have "science" right?? Frcik you get off TikTok and go do something to form a thought instead of just inhaling false ones from the internet

Yeah that was targeted (I AM THE TARGET)

Yvrose's family  love them so much, her niece Sara (think blended family, things are different here) is 10 and we might start teaching her  oh at church yvroses daughter Anaïssa took my phone and I ended up with the CUTEST pics as a result