Contacting!!!!
Iaorana ia tatou,
This week has been filled with a whole lot of contacting where we basically go from door to door and talk to people and see if there interested in learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
One of the first people we taught this past week was a guy who is all for the decolinization of Hawaii and Tahiti. It was really fun and interesting to talk to him but also hard to get a word in. Later that day we taught a lady and talked with her husband who's was good friends with people in Hawaii like Israel Kamakawiwaole, Willie K, Ben Aipa, and Akila Aipa. They gave us some honey that they just harvested and it was amazing and nice because honey is really expensive here. We started talking about surfing and shaping and he mentioned how his brother that lives near him shapes surfboards. Who knows, I might come back with a surfboard or I might even shape a surfboard on my mission. Never would've thought something like that would happen.
We did a Blitz on Wednesday. Basically it's were all the missionaries in a district go into one companionships sector and contact as much as they can. We ended up going into the sister's sector talked to a whole bunch of people. Got rejected in French, Tahitian, English, and Chinese. Got fed some food and even found them a few new friends.
The youth in our ward had a sports activity night with crossfit, volleyball, and boxing. Me and my companion were watching the kids box and they ended up handing us the gloves. It ended up being pretty funny because we've both never boxed before and the youth were trying to teach us. We both ended up getting a few good hits on each other. Later we looked over our rules again and saw it said no physical contact sports, so no more boxing for the rest of the mission.
Taught some lessons on Thursday and then helped out at a English class they do at the chapel for members and friends. My companion proceeded to spell February wrong missing the first "R" and then I go up and make the same exact mistake as him... Aiya. We then had an Ukulele class right after the English class and it ended up being so much fun. It was literally us with a whole lot of Mami's and Papi's. We even sang this song "Te Iwi E" that was just like the Hawaiian song "Oiwi E" and I was jamming out playing and singing that song going so hard that the teacher Hanahou'd (to do again) that buggah a few times for me. Cheeeeeee.
Went and did more contacting on Friday and met an inactive member. We talked to him for a while about a lot of different things and he ended up giving us these Marquisian carved paddles.
Fun Moments:
- We picked up lunch one day and as we were headed to our house I suggested we eat with a view. We ended up pulling off at this beach and saw some surfers/bodyboarders ripping at this shallow reef break. I thought the waves were super small until I saw someone riding it and I was just like, "Woah Elder, get size out there!"
- Found some funny mirrors and other things while we were contacting on our blitz that made us laugh.
- Found roughly 20 baby chick's and 10 chickens/roosters on Saturday and tried to catch a chick but ended up not succeeding.
Spiritual Thought:
One thing that has become very evident to me especially in this past week is the importance of having a good mindset. Everything is a mental game from getting up to going out and talking to people even if you know your going to face rejection. All that matters is how you respond to everything that comes your way. Me and my companion as well as pretty much our whole district faced a lot of rejection this past week but at the end of the day while mostly everyone was sad and over it me and my companion were still smiling. Why is that? Well we were both looking for joy in the small things. Yes we might have not made as many new friends that day but we did get to meet someone and learn about their life and that's pretty cool.
I guess in short it just comes down to looking for the little happy moments that will carry you to the next happy moment.
"Vents favorables et mer suivants"
"Mata'i haumaru e moana mania"
"Fair winds and following seas"
Standing by in Taharaa,
Ellis Ellis
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