She Gooooo!!!

Started off the past week by hiking to some huge Cannons and bunkers that the United States built and left during World War II. The hike was insanely muddy and the parts that were concrete were crazy slippery so I ended up taking off my sandals and walked down the hike barefoot. It felt so nice and the traction was so much better, all while the other people in my district thought I was crazy and weird for doing it. Ahhhh she go, the sisters were looking like crabs crawling around while going down the hike because they were low to the ground and had their hands behind them. I don't know who was more crazy looking, me or them... nah c'est bon.

Miracles:

We had a lesson with a little boy who just didn't want to listen... or so we thought. He was glued to his phone playing a video game and my companion had given up and seemed just as out of it as the little boy. We finished up our lesson and started asking the little boy some questions and it turned out he was paying attention the entire time, and even gave his own thoughts as well.

We had a lunch appointment and then right after we got a call from our next lesson and he said, "I hope your hungry, and ready to eat". We had just pounded so much food and we were on our way to eat even more and I was just praying I wasn't gonna have a kanak attack. Well... we ate round two felt pretty good and left to our next lesson and the food and combination of the heat just hit so hard. Our Ward Mission Leader was talking with the Papi before the lesson and I felt my eyes getting droopy. My eyes finally closed and my head went down and I quickly jerked back to consciousness. The Papi started laughing and our Ward Mission Leader was just like I guess it's time to start. We started and went through the entire lesson in Tahitian and I was completely awake which was a grand miracle.

We taught about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to another Papi and his wife and my companion didn't say a word the entire time. I looked over at him and could tell he was just so lost. I bore my testimony using words I knew he also knew hoping he could connect some dots and it worked. He was able to bear a simple but powerful testimony about prophets and the restoration. We went back the next day because the Mami had invited us over for lunch and slapped so much food and felt like having a kanak attack but knew I couldn't because we had a lesson soon after.

A miracle from the Papi mentioned above was receiving the gift of reading. The older generation can speak and understand just like anyone else but when it comes to reading, not many know how to do it. The Book of Mormon has allowed our Papi to learn to read and also give him the power through prayer and his faith to quit smoking after 50+ years. By the grace of The Book of Mormon and it being another testament of Jesus Christ I have seen and heard stories of countless people being able to learn to read.

Fun Moments:

- Our mouse traps have been working really well and they caught five mice this past week. We haven't gotten any in the past couple days so hopefully we got all of them.

- One evening as we were waiting for our dinner appointment we moved everything out from our patio, mopped and re arranged the couches/chairs and our dinner table to change up the fung shew ( I Don't know how to spell that, hopefully you got it)

- Stanced up next to a super sick old Toyota Landcruiser. Ehhhh, if anyone has an old Toyota Hilux Surf or Toyota Landcruiser I'll gladly take it off your hands after the mission.  :)

- Went in my room last night to grab something and thought I saw something move. Looked under my bed and saw this huge Tupa, and called the other Elders in only to see that the crab started to use a dresser and the gap between the wall to scale it's way up. Elder Pehrson called it one of the top ten most scary moments in his life.

Mana'o Mo'a no teie mahana:

In Luke 17:32 it reads "Remember Lot's Wife". Lot's wife turned back and was turned into a pillar of salt. The Lord had specifically commanded them not to look back. Lot's wife had been too caught up thinking about their past life and the things she once had and wasn't looking forward to the future. From this we can learn that we too are like Lot's wife thinking back to other times and we end up missing the Here, Now, and Tomorrow because we are too focused on the There, Then, and Yesterday. Steady onward my friends looking for that bright future.

"Vents favorables et mer suivante"

"Mata'i haumaru e moana mania"

"Fair winds and following seas"

Standing by in Bora Bora,

Elder Ellis