Week 83: Prayers answered: Pioneering Ua Huka!

Hey everyone! This week was a great one!

On Monday Elder Mcquiston left with Elder Fareata and headed back to the main island and Elder Ugbah and I officially became comps! I love that kid...Elder Ugbah is super funny and he loves sports so we talk about sports when we aren't talking about mission stuff! So yeah he is awesome and he has been on a mission for about 8 months.

Boyd and Ugbah riding bikes to Taipivai for the day

BTW: Yesterday I hit 19 months (what the ...) 

We spent Tuesday going to member's homes so that they could meet and get to know Elder Ugbah. Then we did a few lessons because with the conference last week we didn't have time to re-contact all of our investigators so we we needed to get in our lessons!  We were able to connect with a few investigators and it really was a great day!!  Then that night we got a call from my buddy, the beloved Elder Garff (assistant to the Pres) and he told us that in a few weeks Elder Ugbah and I will be transferred over to Ua Huka! Wooooooooooooooo! I'm sooo pumped! I just knew there was something special about that place when we were over there the past two weeks and it means a lot that President trusted what we felt. 

So today two other Elders are coming here to replace us in Nuku Hiva, and we are spending a little bit of time with them to show them the area, and to prepare for when we go to Ua Huka. We have a lot to prepare for, because there are only 4 members on Ua Huka and we will need to lead everything over there! But there are people who are so ready for the gospel! I am soooooooo excited, but nervous at the same time; it's going to be crazy over there for a while! We are gonna be the first missionaries officially staying over there. It will literally be the first time that there will really be the sacrament or Priesthood over there, it's gonna be wild!

Wednesday we went over to Taipivai and spent the day over there. We saw the Ah Scha family and they are studs!

On Thursday we had a meeting with the new Branch President and our missionary team. We talked about Ua Huka and made plans about what we can do to help this island and the members there. The new Branch President is super great and he is really motivated!!!

Friday we went to Taipivai again with our Branch President to go and help the family Ah Scha. They are having a few problems in their home...they are living in a hornets nest (meaning that they are all alone and everyone that lives around them are super mean and judgmental Catholics and not very accepting of their choice to live the gospel). The Branch President wanted us to go over in our regular clothes just so we did not draw attention on this visit. So we went in pants and a t-shirt haha! It was funny and felt so weird, but we had a great visit with the family! They are sooo great and I wish great things for each one of them.

We did a service project on Saturday. We helped out Kevin Ellis (the American) with his new house that he bought. He is going to start a restaurant! We pretty much took hammers and destroyed walls and broke down shelves it was kinda fun haha! After that we did a few more lessons.

Sunday we went to church and then ate with the Richard family and then we watched the JS movie with some investigators!!! 

This week was really great! So we will have 2 more Elders with us for a little bit while we prepare our reassignment to Ua Huka!  I'm sooooo pumped for that! I really hope that I'll finish there!!! 

Love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Boyd

Week 82: President and Sr Bize arrive in Nuku Hiva for a Conference

Hey guys,

After emailing, Monday was our last day in Ua Huka, so instead of a real P-day, we did lessons with our investigators for our last day, and man am I gonna miss that island and everyone there!! Elder McQuiston and I had the idea to get missionaries over there full time, and since President Bize was coming to Nuku Hiva for a conference, we tried to arrange for the four sisters in Ua Huka (see last week's letter home) to come. We planned to do a meeting with President Bize to talk about this island! So I made a few calls and we were able to direct some district funds to pay for their boat transport so that they could come to the conference!

Elders Boyd and McQuiston with the four sisters from Ua Huka

Tuesday we arrived back on Nuku Hiva! After getting all settled back in we went to see some of our investigators to invite them to the conference, and then we had the meeting with President Bize. In the meeting were President, our branch mission leader, sister ellis, the four sisters from Ua Huka, McQuiston and me.

We wanted to plead for a way to send missionaries to Ua Huka, and the 4 sisters just testified with all of their hearts about why they need missionaries over there. We explained our recent 10-day experience and how it is over there. We must have done something right, because President agreed with us and he is now making plans to send missionaries over there!!

With President Bize

We are not sure what we will do exactly; it might be us who will go over there, or he may send two more missionaries! But, I hope that I'll have that chance to go over there, haha, because I love those guys over there, and you just really feel the need and desire for missionaries!! Man those sisters have sooo much faith. It was definitely a testimony builder to go over there and experience the spirit working in the people we taught on Ua Huka!! 

Wednesday and Thursday were simple days. We tried to visit our investigators in the mornings, then went to conference meetings with President Bize and his wife in the afternoons. We spent some of the days just talking about the mission, and they taught us a few things. We had interviews with them and then Thursday night we had our last conference session! It was great! 

Friday President Bize and his wife left! I really like them, it was great to have  a chance to hang with them for a few days! They both have served this mission really well and I'm so grateful that I got to serve with them in this mission. It's weird ... that was probably the last time that I will see them for a while, because they finish in July! 

Later Friday morning the sisters of Ua Huku were headed back home so we went to the dock and said goodbye to them.

Saturday I woke up a little sick. Haha, I think it was just from being tired because we haven't had a good break for like  2 weeks. We went out and did a few lessons and came back and rested a little bit! 

Sunday we had church and then we went to pick up Elder Ugbah and Fareata. Their area was recently closed on the island of Hiva Oa, so they were staying the night here. We all went and enjoyed burritos with the Ellis family which was bombin!!

Elders Boyd and McQuiston

Today, Elder McQuiston was transferred and I have a new comp, Elder Ugbah from Missouri. He has been on his mission about 8 months now, and he is cool. I'm excited to work with him.

Love you all.

Elder Boyd

Week 81: The story of Ua Huka

Hey guys, this trip to Ua Huka was an amazing adventure!! We head back to Nuku Hiva tomorrow afternoon, and I really don't wanna go back haha! So the story of Ua Huka: 

Stock photo of the mountains of Ua Huka

There is a woman named Yolinda here. About a year ago her husband died in a car accident and they were both members, so she was left alone with two kids, but she has testified that this gospel has helped her through her trials! At the funeral her father in law came and there was another inactive member here named Yvonne (she is great and she is related to the Orbeck family in Pape'ete). No one knew that she was a member except Yolinda (they were the only 2 members on the island), and at the funeral Yvonne sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives", and then everyone knew that she was a member, and apparently it was such a powerful moment!

So Yolindas best friend, Marie Christine, was interested in this gospel that helped Yolinda so much, so Yolinda shared all that she knew, then had the idea to contact the missionaries in Nuku Hiva. They started doing lessons by Skype and Marie Christine was baptized the 19th of November 2016. She invited her friend, Marie Chantal, to her baptism and she was super touched and wanted to learn more so she started taking the lessons and then was baptized in January.

But, there are a few problems in Ua Huka -- it's ALL Catholic, so when Marie Christine and then Marie Chantal were baptized, the persecution started, and its like major persecution, such as the Catholic church leaders are teaching lessons on how evil the Mormons are and how to criticize them. It's super ridiculous!

So now there are four members, Yolinda, Yvonne (she is active now), Marie Christine, and Marie Chantal, and they are all sooo amazing and have sooo much faith. Because of their example there is so much work here and a lot of people who are super interested and ready. We really need missionaries here!! It is amazing to see these four sisters and how happy they are in spite of the local negativity! 

There are a lot of investigators here that I love too that I really don't want to leave the island! We have found so many people who are ready, and we set 3 baptismal dates in the 9 days we have been here!! So yeah, there's the story of Ua Huka.

Stock photo

I have had so many testimony building experiences on the priesthood during my mission, and that continued here on Ua Huka. Yesterday we gave so many blessings, and have already seen the effects of it. It can make a grown man cry, and not know why, haha. No one who has with faith received a priesthood blessing and felt its power can deny the reality of it!

I know that it's true and real and that every young man needs to be ready and worthy to use it at all times.

We have been so busy since we got here, I haven't taken the time to capture how beautiful this place is. I'll take some more pics today and send them next week. 

Love you all 

Elder Connor Boyd

Week 80: No time to write from Ua Huka

Elder Boyd and his companion have travelled by boat to the neighboring island of Ua Huka for about 10 days to find, teach, interview, and baptize people they have been teaching via Skype. Internet wasn't working well there so he was only able to get through a message to pray for the people they are working with and that he sends his love.

Week 79: God gives light to those who use his atonement daily

Hey guys!

Elders Boyd and Paxman from back in Aru'e doing a Zone Conference. (we just got this today)

So after emailing on Monday, we went and fixed our bikes because yeah they were a little bit broken down and needed some help! Haha! Then the Gendron family invited us over and we had a great family night with them!

On Tuesday we started the week off pretty well with a bunch of good lessons and cool stuff! One of my faves is a little kid from Ua Huka named Ronny and we have been talking about baptism with him for a while, so we hope that we can baptize him next week.  BTW, this next Friday we are heading over to Ua Huka and we are staying there from the 24th to the 7th of March. This is my first time over there so we are really praying that when we get there we will be able to baptize some of our investigators that are ready for baptism...we do so many of our lessons with them over Skype so pray for us!!!! We are really excited to head over there and to work with our investigators face to face. I hear that it is super different, but super cool over there!

Wednesday we rode our bikes all the way to Taipivai, and had a great day!!! We went to the Ah Scha family's home (active members) and then brother Ah Scha (bless you) came with us to do missionary work the whole day!  He is such a stud, and he is soooo funny! He has sooo much energy, and he loves the gospel so much that he just gets super excited and his enthusiasm is contagious!  I had such a fun time hanging with brother Ah Scha that day...it was really a blast! He is definitely one of my favorite members. We had the chance to visit a lot of inactive members and a lot of investigators, and then we did an English class which was super fun!

We had our district meeting, our meeting with the the Branch Mission Leader, more lessons, and then we had our weekly planning meetings to round out the week. 'Twas a good time!

Saturday was branch conference, and the District President came over from Hiva Oa, and we had some activities. We made little basket things out of leaves and stuff, and for those that know me pretty well you can imagine that I got bored of that really fast haha! The sisters in the branch finished my basket for me because apparently I wasn't very good at making it (I thought I was doing ok) haha! Then that night we had a fireside that Elder Mcquiston and I planned. We watched videos on doing missionary work and talked about the importance of the members in missionary work! We make so much progress when we are all working together!

I had one of those missionary testimony builder experiences on Sunday. When sacrament meeting started Mcquiston and I were sitting at the sacrament table (we bless the sacrament) and I could see in the back row the Ah Scha family. Brother Ah Scha looked miserable and he was crying, and his wife had sunglasses on and you could tell she was crying too! I was worried because before they were reactivated they had a little challenge with the Word of Wisdom, so in my mind I thought they maybe had a setback with that again! 

When we started the sacrament I saw that brother Ah Scha left and went to the back of the house. After the sacrament Mcquiston and I went to the back of the house (which was on the other side of where the meeting was) and I saw him sitting there and tearing up. I just went up to him and gave him a hug and Mcquiston did the same. Brother Ah Scha kinda tried to hide it but then he started talking to us. 

So long story short, when they got to church his oldest kid pushed his little brother to the ground on purpose (classic brother move) and his little brother got all dirty, so Brother Ah Scha got really angry. He said that he was just sooooo filled with anger that he didn't feel ready to take the sacrament that week. He just expressed that he is trying so hard and wants to be a good example for his kids but was worried that he was failing! Then something came to my mind that I had never really thought of before, I said ,"During my mission I've seen the difference in the families that truly want to live the gospel. There is a certain light in their home, and I saw that in your home last Wednesday. God gives this light to families that use His atonement daily, not to families that are perfect, but families that use the atonement." 

In that moment the Spirit taught me through my own words that He put inside my mind to help comfort Brother Ah Scha, but they were as much for me as they were for him. Then Brother Ah Scha cheered up and we talked a little more, we talked about Punu Pua Toro and Uru which is one of our favorite meals in Polynesia for the both of us! Things just got better as the day went on!

I know that it may not seem like a big deal to us that he got a little angry and didn't feel like he could take the sacrament, but to brother Ah Scha it was. I think it is because he truly understands what the sacrament really is, he showed sooo much love and respect for our Father in Heaven that day, just by his concern that he was not worthy to take the sacrament. I will always remember that moment!

Have a great week and love ya!

Elder Boyd 

Week 78: When FHE cancels ... make burritos.

Hey guys!

Monday we did a bombin' hike! Slightly dangerous, but it was super fun!! I sent pics of it last week! Then we got ready for our FHE and right when we were walking out the door, the member called us and canceled! So I made burritos for us and man it was good! I found taco seasoning in the cupboard, and I got soo excited!!

This week was a little bit harder because a lot of people canceled on us, we had a day full of scheduled lessons, we had 8 planned but 6 canceled or weren't there when we showed up! It was a bummer, but we still made good use of our time contacting, visiting old investigators, and visiting members, so it was still a great day!

We planned that every Wednesday we would ride our bikes to the next valley called Taipivai, and we would stay there the whole day. There are two active member families (the Ah-Schas and the Chus) that live there, so we planned to go with them and see some of their friends, and we had some great success. We met an inactive member and his wife who is not a member but she believes in the church (she is just waiting for her husband to get his act together). The husband's name is Rocky haha I totally call him Rocky Balboa; he is a good guy so we will help him get on a good path so his family can be in the church!

Thursday we had our lesson with Sister Marie, the sister in law of our branch mission leader. She is probably our biggest potential because she is interested and she has family helping her through this process. I noticed that when you teach someone who is interested and ready to hear the gospel message you can see a certain light in their eyes, and it is amazing to see. It's like God's spirit is changing them in that very moment. I never really noticed it before, but now it's something I notice easily!

Elders McQuiston and Boyd working Taipivai

Friday: We had a lesson in the morning and then we had district meeting by Skype and my comp, Elder McQuiston, gave a killer lesson! Then we went out to see some members and some old investigators, then we did our weekly planning!

Saturday was great. We planned a missionary activity and some of the members came. Basically we talked about missionary work and the importance of members' role in the work, then we did some role playing and had them practice sharing a message about the family.  We had them write down names of five friends, then we split up into three teams and we all went to visit those friends for an hour. It was super awesome because the members actively engaged in finding people for us to teach and THEY shared the messages.  We were able to get a few good references from it, invite new people to family night activity we set up, and found a new and solid investigator!!

Visiting bro Gendron

Sunday we attended church in our little branch and were invited to dinner with Kevin (the American) and his wife sister Ellis, and then we visited some investigators and some less-actives!!

This week we weren't able to see Rapuni and Leila -- they were busy -- and we were a bit busy too, but we will try and see them this week!!

I always will say that the biggest thing I learned on my mission is the principle of repentance; it's sooo important and necessary for our happiness! When someone changes for good, God forgives and rejoices! That's what I have felt so personally in my life!

Have a great week!

Elder Boyd

Note: Connor's Valentine's Package is somewhere between New Zealand and Tahiti and will probably reach him in Nuku Hiva next month (even thought we sent the first week of January). Hope he enjoys a few snacks and thoughts from home.

Week 77: Elder Boyd testifies about what helps him believe in God (Alma 36)

Kaoha Nui! 

Last Monday after we did our emailing we went to play basketball with some really cool members. It was super pretty too because the court is just right beside the ocean! It was a pretty chill Pday! For family night we wanted to do a thing we call "Soirée Quartier"...It's basically FHE but everyone in the neighborhood is invited so it's a great way to find investigators.  Our branch mission leader hosted it and we watched "Meet the Mormons"! We had 12 investigators there and our branch mission leader was sooo giddy haha! He was pumped that we actually had investigators there! It was neat to see his excitement!

Tuesday we got back to the grind...ha! We had lessons almost every hour and man I was sooo tired that night.  That's the way it's supposed to feel on the mish!

Wednesday was the grind round 2! We are getting down to business! We found some new investigators and were super busy! I finally got my bike there on the island so now we could do things a little bit faster.  It was great to be able to pick up the speed. That night we were supposed to go and see Steven but he was working late. We didn't really a have a chance to see him this week so there's no news on his situation, but we have a lesson with him tomorrow, so wish us luck.  

On Thursday we went to see some investigators that I really like. The wife is named Leila and the husband is named Rapuni. Rapuni is a pretty smart guy and we were just talking to him like friends!  He would tell us stories in his life when he felt like the Spirit was telling him something. He has had many expériences that have helped him believe in God, and he asked about the Mormons and why are we different and stuff.  

We talked about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, Plan of Salvation and stuff like that, and then he asked me directly about my expériences. He wanted to know what has helped me believe in God and to feel that He is there to help me.  I shared a few verses from Alma 36 which is when Alma talks about the joy he felt and even his repentance process. I expressed to him that we all make mistakes...in my life I have certainly made some mistakes...and that it's through this repentance process that we can no longer be "tortured by the remembrance of my many sins". The Spirit was sooo strong in that moment and we could feel it so strongly. 

Then Rapuni was quiet and ended the conversation and was like, "I gotta get going to work." It was weird to me that he ended the conversation right after that moment. He hurried in the house and his wife said goodbye to us. I don't know what this man was feeling or what lead him to end the conversation like that.  I could tell that something about that conversation hit him really hard. I'm excited to see him this week and to talk to him. I will keep you posted.

Friday was a day of meetings and planning.  We set out our goals and plans for the week.

We had another busy day of lessons on Saturday and did our best to contact more investigators. 

On Sunday after Sacrament Meeting the branch mission leader, his wife, Sister Ellis, and the two of us went to the other side of the island to a village named Aakapa. It was like a two hour drive so we could see some of the members over there. We are going to organize a prayer group so that these members can take the sacrament on Sundays in their own village. It's really hard for them to get to the other side of the island and they need the opportunity to take the sacrament. Man is it super pretty here in Nuku Hiva...i mean it is just soo pretty! It is really an amazing place!

K guys have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Boyd