Forward...Pressing Forward!

 

Last complete district photo

Last Saturday was a bittersweet symphony to say the least. We sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" not once but twice as we were finishing up our last French classes and the Barbados Elders in our district were getting ready to head off into the field. Sad that our time devoted to learning French is gone but now we are off in a room just down the hall to start learning Tahitian.

A mission is a mission no matter what you are doing or who you are serving. We were fortunate enough to watch some videos in French of missionaries who had to switch from prosolating missions to service missions because of various health problems. As we were practicing as a choir, our director shared the same kind of message. He said that when he was in a meeting with the president of the church and some of his counselors they mentioned how all missionaries are the same in their eyes and in the eyes of the Lord. As we were singing and practicing for general conference alongside with service and senior missionaries the spirit and feeling of love that engulfed the chapel we were in was just so strong. 

President Mark L. Pace, Sunday school general president came to share a little message with us this past Tuesday and he focused on having unity in your life. The three key points he hit was how it was important to have unity with the members in which you are serving, unity with your companion, and unity with the spirit. Having unity with the members in which you are serving is extremely important. And fostering relationships can be as simple as helping them out with yard work or other household work. Over 50% of convert baptisms are now through members and members are the ones doing the heavy lifting. We as missionaries are a vessel in which these converts or ports can receive knowledge and their own testimony of the church. The second point he talked about was unity with your companion and how differences are actually a good thing. By being united as a companionship you are able to feel for each other's needs and support each other throughout the week. By keeping love and trust in your relationship with your companion you are able to grow and learn with and from each other. Differences also help to bring about different perspectives. If everyone was the same and perfect life would be boring. We wouldn't have stories to share, and there would be no joy or sadness. It would be as if we didn't actually live a life. Don't just live a life, but rather live your life because you're what makes your life unique. Having unity with the spirit is like working with the best spotter in the world. He is your guy at the front of your vessel standing look out making sure you can avoid things that might damage you. The spirit is your spotter while you are operating a crane or forklift. Although you aren't going to be able to see everything from your perspective, he is there to guide you into your load and will help you place your load no matter the obstacles or difficulties that might stand in your way. But just like having any spotter, you need to have faith and be united. Being united with the spirit is like being on the same wavelength with your spotter. You understand every verbal and non verbal command they are giving and you are able to complete your tasks safely with peace of mind. 

19-M with our other french speaking friends

So we started learning Tahitian this week and I haven't been happier. It is crazy to think that in a few weeks we will be off in the field speaking or at least attempting to speak French and Tahitian. Tahitian is coming a whole lot easier than French thanks to the similarities between it and Hawaiian. Past tense, future tense, commands, sentence structures, pronouns, and some words are all either the same or pretty similar. Reading, and listening is coming along really well, and I've started to highlight words in a dictionary they gave us so I can start sharing stories and experiences in Tahitian. It is nice to learn more about grammar because although I know what to say or what things say, I never quite remembered the grammar part when I took Hawaiian. It was kind of like speaking English, you know what to say and it makes sense but when you try and get technical about things you don't really know the answer. Me and Elder Hill are able to help each other. He helps me with French and I'll help him with Tahitian. We made new language plans and have committed to studying at least two hours of language each day outside of class, for me it's a minimum of 1 hr 20 minutes of French and 40 minutes of Tahitian. For Him it is flipped around, but we have found ourselves spending a little over 4 hours a day outside of class just reading and practicing our skills.

Side note... Elder Ellis will also be participating in the MTC choir and will be sing in one of the Church's General Conference session this weekend (Oct. 1-2, 2022). He mentioned that he will be seated on the right side, in the middle of the middle.  

Conference Center Dress rehearsal

Look for me... right side, middle of middle

Conference Center

In Piti Nephi chapter piti ahuru ma va'u verse toru ahuru it reads, "E hōro’a vau i te mau tamari’i a te ta’ata nei i te fa’aue nā ni’a iho i te fa’aue, i te a’o nā ni’a iho i te a’o, te tahi vāhi iti i’ō nei ’e te tahi vāhi iti i ’ō atu. E ha’api’i ho’i rātou i te parau pa’ari, nō te mea ’o ’oia ’o tē fāri’i mai e hōro’a fa’ahou atu ā vau". God will give us line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. For unto him that receiveth I will give more.

"Vents favorables et mer suivante"

"Fair winds and following seas"

Standing by,

Elder Ellis