Self Reliance? C'est quoi ça?

Iaorana is tatou,

This week felt very fast but at the same time very jammed packed. Looking back on this week I'm still so surprised at how much we were able to accomplish in such a short time period. Thought I would highlight a few Highs and Lows throughout the week because even though we are missionaries doesn't mean that our lives are perfect.

Weekly Highs:

- Took a little trip to Point Venus last Monday to check out the lighthouse and boats and views over there.

- Elder Spencer took his little magic bullet blender apart rewired it so it would work again and it worked... For one smoothie and then the blender got fried again.

- Had a great zone conference where we talked about the importance of being simple but powerful. Sometime missionaries love to go on tangents about things but in reality that's not the most helpful thing to people and sometimes that will just cause even more confusion. The trick is to be simple, concise, powerful and clear. 

- We taught the importance of becoming self reliant. It is important to become self reliant in life for your physical needs and spiritual needs. You can become self reliant for your physical needs by getting an education, finding a job, and budgeting. But what does it mean to become self reliant spiritually? It means flourishing your own testimony no matter how small it is. If you even have a small seed of faith that small seed can be nourished into a large tree. This can be done through prayer, studying the scriptures, and going to church. By doing these simple three things we can see our faith grow and our love for our savior also grow.

- One of our friends chose a date for baptism. May 28th, it's so soon and we couldn't be happier for her.

- We went to go see this lady who's a little not there mentally. We found her when I first got transferred into the area while we were doing contacting. She had called us the other week and was like I need you guys to come right now you need to see this picture I think the American government changed it. We went to her house and she showed us two pictures of her dad one when he was just married and another someone took a few years ago. She said he looked different in the images and we explained that it was just because he was a little older. I then shared how God is the same, Yesterday, Today and Forever. And related that to how her dad is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever even if he looks a little different.

- We had a sick district council. The couple Winters in our district cut up pool noodles and made it like a lightsaber and gave it to us so that we could wack each other. That was definitely a highlight for this past week.

- We found four new friends on Saturday and one of them wants to get baptized already. He's the sweet, intelligent little boy who actually lives across the street from us.

Weekly Lows:

- One of our friends has started to ghost us and won't answer our texts or calls. At first we thought it was because the rain but now we just don't know.

- Our entire district except Sœur Snuggs caught some stomach bug going around in our area and we were all down for the count on Sunday. Our house didn't make it to church and we were all just taking turns in the bathroom. We went through five rolls of toilet paper and my companion called it his new weight loss program because he lost five pounds that day.

Spiritual Thought:

In Mormon 8:24 it reads, "And he knoweth their faith, for in his name could they remove mountains; and in his name could they cause the earth to shake." 

We can do anything according to our faith and the Will of God if it so be that the things we want to accomplish are good and also according to His Will.

"Vents favorables et mer suivants"

"Mata'i haumaru e moana mania"

"Fair winds and following seas"

Ua Here au ia 'oe,

Elder Ellis

Link to my Google Photo's album. Go check um, go check um, go!:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qErFS2eWV3pJGVEV7