Envoyez!!!!! Send it!!!
Kaoha nui ia tatou,
This past week has absolutely been a blast. We sent it in all ways possible we worked hard in the mission field during the day and ate a lot in the evenings. We started off the monday with a sunrise hike which was sooooo killer. The view from the top was amazing. It was super dark and windy when we started the hike but ended up being really nice. We went to one of our friends houses for dinner and I made some spam musubi and we also made chichidango / aka mochi and they loved it and ended up putting guava jam on top and they were like Elder Ellis you need to try it. It the Hawaiian and Marquisian mix, it's amazing.
Highlights:
- Made some Spam Musubi, Chichidango, Fried Noodles, and Haupia.
- Found some Pu's (conch shells 🐚) Papi just needs to cut the hole into it so we can blow it but asking around works!
- Got sent a vacuum and a dryer by the mission. Luiaaaa le upgrades to the house.
- We scavenged for coins because our members were out of town for the temple and we didn't have enough for food. We were litterally looking between seat and every crack in our house.
- Picked up some waterbottles at a Papis house and his hunting dogs were ready to eat us. Elder Lane calls the Papi and the Papi is just like, "Don't worry my dogs won't eat Mormons"
- Decided I would start grinding Marquesian more. Got numbers, days, months, terms for people and for weather down.
- Saw a Bull that looked funny because it had rope on it's head. Elder Lane made a funny sound and the Bull almost charged our car.
- Did some contacting and met some kids who spoke Marquisian and they started teaching us words.
- Elder Lane smoked a chicken while we were driving. One moment we saw a chicken crossing the road the next moment it tried to fly away but ended up flying into our windshield.
- Went to a lesson with one of the french doctors who's actually is the director of the hospital and we had a fire lesson. He started asking me about Hawaiian culture and if it was hard to choose between the two. To his question I said it was hard to choose between the two because it wasn't a choice. I'm still able to practice my culture in other ways without worshiping different god's like my ancestors did. I talked about the importance of bringing the two together and the joy that it has brought in my life. The lesson was so powerful. He then told my companion he needs to take time to breathe and become cool because he looks stressed. He then turns at me and is like "Look at Elder Ellis, he's so calm". I realized a little way through our lesson the doctor was reading our body language. I slowed down my speech as too not sound rushed and maintained eye contact and found the doctors eyes never moved one bit. Learned the importance of keeping eye contact with him, it was almost like a staring contest.
-- Cut our neighbors hair. His hair is thining on top and I'm not gonna lie I was nervous. He started off by saying his just wanted the sides a little shorter then I started cutting and he was like, "No, actually I wanted a skin fade". Ended up giving him a skin fade and then trimmed his sisters hair and layered it. First time and last time because that was too stressful but she was happy.
- Had another great lesson that lasted a couple hours with one of our friends who got excommunicated from the Jehovah's Witness because she started taking lessons with us. She said the people in our ward and church are so much nicer to her and it touched my heart. She also told Elder Lane to breathe and I was like pas des soucis. No worries brah we can schedule in a 10 minute meditation time for you. He wasn't too fond of the idea but I think it'd be great. 10 minutes of me imagining I'm at Sandy's bodysurfing again, how much more relaxed could I get.
Lowlights:
- Since our branch is at the temple there's not too many people. It ended up being the Elder Ellis and Elder Lane show at church the other day. Elder Lane blessed the sacrament and I passed it. After I gave a 15 minute talk and then gave the closing prayer. Then we taught the sunday school lesson for a solid hour. Siccccck. All planned the night before when we got a call from one of the people in the bishopric asking if we could do it at 9pm. Solid it went well and we had a good discussion. We even played a game for our sunday school lesson.
Thought:
A little section from my talk the other day in church, "Nous ne pouvons pas attendre qu'un grand événement se produise dans nos vies, nous devons plutôt faire de petits pas pour faire grandir notre foi chaque jour.
La foi vient petit à petit. Nous devons nous engager pleinement dans nos croyances. Nous ne pouvons pas choisir les commandements que nous suivrons et ne suivrons pas. En suivant chaque commandement qui a été donné, nous pouvons apprendre à connaître Christ. On voit bien que les commandements ne sont pas là pour nous retenir mais plutôt pour nous permettre de grandir ensemble."
" We cannot wait for a big event to happen in our lives, rather we must take small steps to grow our faith each day.
Faith comes little by little. We must fully commit to our beliefs. We cannot choose which commandments we will and will not follow. By following each command that has been given, we can come to know Christ. We can clearly see that the commandments are not there to hold us back but rather to allow us to grow together."
"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
