Texan in Tahiti

Ia Ora Na Tatou!

So first of all, I am a little ecstatic because while we were anxiously waiting for the assistants to call for transfers this past weekend, they never did! So we didn't get affected by the transfer and Soeur Falesii will end up being my last companion. I’m happy.

Second of all, after WEEKS of searching and working to find new investigators, we finally did this past week! We had 6 new investigators, 3 of which are a family that was a reference by a family in our ward and is prepared like no other family that I've ever met. We had our first lesson this past weekend and at the end, I felt strongly that we needed to commit them to be baptized. Well as he was sharing his thoughts at the end of the lesson, he ended up telling us that he knows that by July, they'll be baptized. They already committed themselves for baptism. Can you talk about GOLDEN investigators?! We bore testimony and I know that when they find out that it really is the true church of Jesus Christ, they won’t wait until July to be baptized. The wife is actually a deacon in the RLDS church which is a big deal, but as she was sharing her thoughts as well, it was pretty evident that she knew that it was true. She said, "As a deacon, normally I should be serving God. But I feel like I’m only serving man. It just doesn't feel right." She reads a whole lot the Bible and I can just feel that she really is searching for the peace in knowing the truth. At the same time, it is pretty hard for her as well because she is in this position of leadership. All in all, we felt so blessed to find this family with 3 kids. The oldest, who is 11 years old, will take the lessons with us starting this week. This family has a lot of potential so we're excited for them.

With the New Year, we worked with our Ward Mission Leader during our Coordination meeting to develop a Ward Mission Plan for this year and while we were looking at our ward, we called up the assistants to find out how many baptisms our ward had during the past couple of years. We found out that in 2012, we had 2 baptisms. In 2013, we had 5 baptisms. And in 2014, we had 15 baptisms in the ward. That means that the number of baptisms TRIPLED between 2013 and 2014. Talk about hastening the work.

So with those numbers, we set the goal of 25 baptisms for the ward this year and we had a good ward council yesterday about how we were going to make that happen. Ward councils are not always easy as missionaries, but if we're not there to motivate the members, who will?

I’m still freaking out a little bit because Soeur Aniel, my first companion, is finishing her mission tomorrow! I feel like my mission is making a full circle because we ended up being in sectors right next to each other and I got to see her until the end just like in the beginning. It's a little weird that she's finishing now and I’m finishing later, but I'm really happy for her.

Another reason why my mission is taking a full circle is because I got food poisoning yesterday, just like when I first got here. I’m praying that that's the end of it and that that won't continue, but I’m sure it won’t.

Other than that, I’m doing really well. It’s been nice and sunny lately (and really hot at the same time) but I always feel like the sun is better than the rain because of the fact that we're always on bikes.