Service , Service , and more Service!!!!

Alohaaaaaaaa,

I love it here, there are so many opportunities for planned and unplanned Service. Back on the island of Tahiti it was a little hard to find Service opportunities because everything you asked everyone would say no need Elders, but here you ask people if you can help them with things like yard work and there like no need but then they let you help them anyways, they just say no need to be nice and see how you'll react. Like the subject line says, this past week has been filled with a lot of service. We did so many different things, a lot of yard work in our white shirts and ties as well as filling up bottles of water for our members.

Highlights:

Monday:

- Went hunting and the person we were with shot 8 goats. We ended up hiking down this sketchy mountain balancing 45lbs rice sacks filled with goats on the back. We were so glad he skinned the goats on top because we definitely couldn't have carried those goats all the way back down. We even ended up taking a longer route because the first route we took was a lit sketchy. The route back was still sketchy but not that bad. The next day our member went back out to a different spot and got 15 more goats with his son in law but this time they had their horses to carry everything back for them.

Tuesday:

- We had a lesson in the morning and started talking about family and the importance of knowing the history or your people with one lady and I started asking questions about the families history and it opened up a whole can of worms and we were able to learn so much about traditional farming, food preparation, fishing and medicine making. We also tried contacting this French neighborhood and we're told to leave and never come back or the guy was going to have us arrested. The guy might've been mean but one of our friends is a cop and another a prison guard so I think we would've been fine. If anything we would've talked to our other friend who works at the only gas station and tell him not to sell the guy gas... just joking but we're hoping we don't stumble on any more of that guys properties.

Wednesday:

- Said goodbye to one of our recent converts who ended up leaving to go and live on a different island. He gave us these cool green rocks with little flowers on the inside that you can only find on his island. Made some burritos for lunch then picked up a whole bunch of bottles for members. We only picked up bottles from three members but ended up with close to 600 1.5 Liter bottles and a few big jugs. Our truck was packed the back and the inside. We ended up spending around an hour and a half filling up bottles and we can fill up 60 bottles every 10 minutes so you know that buggah was mean.

Thursday:

- Woke up and went to a Papi's house to drink Milo and eat some Sao, pretty much hot coco and crackers. Helped the Papi redo his outside shower area. Spent a few hours doing that and ended up with so much saw dust because Papi was using a chainsaw as a regular saw and was just going and wooden posts and other things. Oh I also taught Papi how to use the word "Hammah" to describe someone like we do in Hawaii. My favorite quote from him was "Ah, Elder Lane... He's not one hammah right now." Poor Elder Lane was sleeping in a church on the side while we were working because the fish and some water we drank from the day before wasn't sitting too well. Had a lesson with the doctors and started talking about boating and ended up leaving with a French boating regulation book because the guy had just got his captains license and no longer needed the book. Sweet, learning about sailing in French,  quelle étude de langue .

Friday:

- Started transferring notes to the gospel library app because we finally got our own phones. Pretty mean because now we are able to mark everything digitally and we don't have to carry too many physical books which can get a little heavy. Ate dinner with the Ellis' a guy from California who's not a member but his wife is a member. He made some mean Mexican food and he even imported a huge bottle of Chalula hot sauce which made me do a double take as soon as I got in the house because I didn't even see that in Tahiti. Had an amazing time with them and of course we talked about sailing and boats because they own a Yacht services store down here.

Saturday:

- Went back to Papi's house for breakfast. Figure out the perfect powdered milk to Milo and sugar ratio which made life amazing. Had an amazing impromptu lesson with one of our friends. He called us and was like I could really talk to you guys right now there's a lot on my mind and we were like, on our way. Had another lesson and one of our friends showed a lot of interest in baptism. Made some cookies and went over to Papis house for dinner to celebrate his birthday.

Sunday:

- Went to church started saying "Hi" and then went right back home as soon as we realized Elder Lane forgot his tag. Went back and had an amazing sacrament meeting followed by a lesson on the importance of the sacrament and temples. There was a brief time to share our thoughts and we shared how baptism is the first gate we can open and after we are on the covenant path and in order to stay on the path we must come to the church every Sunday so we can remember the covenants we have made and also prepare ourselves for the temple and then staying active and on the right past until the very end. At the end a few of our friends were like, "Well you guys need to talk to us more about baptism. It looks like that's the next step for me". We were both shocked when we heard that, the spirit really works wonders and touches the hearts of many. Had an amazing rest of our day filled with Lemon chicken, chow mein, and filling up bottles of water.

Spiritual thought:

While talking with one of our friends this past week she shared how he's been trying to search for answers on how to effectively lead and overcome challenges he's faced with. No matter what action he takes he always felt like someone was mad with him and wanted us to tell him what he needed to do. We're no expects and definitely shouldn't be telling the director of the hospital how to run it so instead we gave a little bit of advice which I think can be applicable to all of us in our lives.

Instead of constantly praying for an answer sometimes we need to pray for inner peace and patience. With peace and clarity in mind and soul will we be able to find the answer to all of our questions. 

I invite you all to pray for inner peace and I know for sure you will receive it, and the clarity of mind to figure out solutions for yourself.

"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