Week 71: 2nd Christmas in Tahiti

Hey guys!  This week was another great week!

On Monday after emailing we went to Point Venus and just chilled for Pday! It was awesome and we had a great time. 

Point Venus

Then we had a lesson with the Diard family (they are doing great BTW) and then FHE with our other investigator named Sebastian. Good day! Tuesday we got right back to work. Our goal was to have as many lessons as we could possibly fit in because it was the week of Christmas and it's always hard to do a bunch of lessons because people are really busy. But that wasn't going to stop us!

Christmas party at the mission home

We had our mission Christmas party on Wednesday and it was soooo fun! I saw everyone from my MTC group and I finally saw Elder Barfuss! It had been like a year and a half because we were always in different parts of the mission and it was good to see and chill with him! We totally watched "Finding Dory"! It was cool to just watch a movie again...haha...I have missed that! 

Thursday and Friday we got back to work with District Meeting and lessons.

On Christmas Eve we tried our best to get lessons done haha! But we did set a baptismal date for January 28th! Her name is Vienna and she is awesome! We are really excited for her.  She is so ready! Then we went to the hospital with our district and we went caroling to some of the sick people there. We could really feel the spirit that night in that hospital! Then we spent Christmas Eve with the family Teiti and we ate mussels, oysters, crab salad, fish, escargot, and it was sooo good!!! I ate soooooo much I wanted to throw up ha! Then we went on the roof and we lit fireworks with them...a little different Christmas Eve tradition than we have at home, but it was great!

Christmas Day we went to Church and did the Zone Leader reports. AND THEN I SKYPED THE FAM! That was great once we got the connection under control! Then we went and visited the orbeck family for dinner and it was super! Later we did a small thing with our district and played the ukulele, the guitar, and played and sang Christmas songs together! It was a good day!

Doing ZL calls on Christmas day ... the work never stops

Sorry this was a whimpy letter haha but i wish you all a Merry Christmas and I'll see you all next year! The mission goes by way too fast! I'm loving it!

Elder Boyd

Week 70: Christmas Program on Tahitian TV

Hey guys! How is everyone doing? As you probably know by now, the local television station wanted to do a Christmas special on the LDS missionaries, so President Bize called a few missionaries to come over to the mission home on Monday and we did the program. It was pretty great ... actually it was scary being on camera. It aired locally on TahitiNui TV on December 18th.

Elder Connor Boyd can be seen at the beginning and end singing, and his intro is at the 5:20 mark at this link:
http://www.tntvreplay.pf/Emission-religieuse-du-18-decembre-Eglise-de-Jesus-Christ-des-saints-des-derniers-jours_v8038.html

Tuesday was bombin'! We had a bunch of lessons but I don't really remember anything that would be that significant to tell you about. Just lots of lessons! Haha!

On Wednesday we had another  busy day of lessons, and we had a great lesson with the Teiti family. The dad is a member, but currently inactive. The mom and the kids are Catholic, but we have been teaching them for quite a while and they looooovvvveeeee taking the lessons. We have been starting to talk about marriage and baptism, and you can see that they are starting to get a testimony of everything. They are really getting ready!

The Orbeck family took us to dinner again this week.  Love this family!

We met a new investigator on Thursday named Thierry. He is a little "out there" in that he is part of a group that is fighting for Tahitian independence. They want Tahiti to be an independant country because right now they are a part of France. France is honestly the thing keeping them up and alive. If they were independent, it would be so hard for Tahiti to get any resources! We will see how long this independent group of people lasts, but we hope Thierry can embrace the gospel. 

That night we had our little video watching night and activity with our investigators. The family Diard,  the other Sebastian, Nicolas (recent convert) and few other new people came. We watched the "Nativity" video, then the "Resurrection", the #lighttheworld video (which is super awesome btw), and "Because of Him", Between every video we had a member bear their testimony. Bishop bore his testimony and then me and Elder Ruff. And then our new convert Nicolas (he's a stud) bore his testimony! It was super great and our investigators looooovvvveeeddd it because it was simple and powerful. I loved it because it was only 45 minutes long! Hahaha! We can do a lot in 45 minutes!

District meeting was on Friday and the district had another great week! After the meeting we did more lessons! We found out one of our investigators was gay so that was a pleasant experience...not sure how we missed that.  

Finding a Doorbell in Tahiti is a rare thing. It took 18 months to find one. Normally you Yell "IA ORANA" and people either come out or yell back. See what happened with ... The Doorbell ...

https://vimeo.com/196496103

On Saturday we found a new neighborhood and it was a richer neighborhood. These areas are tougher to contact in, but we decided to try. We didn't quite finish the neighborhood, but almost everyone said "no" immediately! Sad! But there was one guy that said we could come back so we will see how that goes! Maybe he was the ONE that needed us that day.

Sunday was so great! The Diard family, Teiti family, and 4 other investigators came to church and it was sooooo awesome! We are finally getting some great blessings and our hard work is paying off. The Zone is doing super great as well. Every month the mission does a challenge for the zones and this is like the first time that ARUE has been in the lead and we are super excited! I'm so proud of our missionaries!

Elders Boyd and Ruff after a great meal at "The Trailer"

Like I said in my last letter.... I have learned so much about repentance on this mission. Repentance allows all of us to become better people, even if we have major weakness. Repentance can turn people's lives around.  I have seen it bless people's lives and it blesses mine too. 

Have a great week and love you guys! We will be Skyping in just a few days!!! 

Elder Boyd

Week 69: First week with Ruff and following the promptings of the spirit in teaching

Hey guys! So this week was a pretty good one!

After handling all of the transfer stuff on Monday and saying goodbye to Pax, Elder Ruff and I got to work on Tuesday. We had a lesson with the Taiti family and they are doing super great! They just keep progressing really well. Then we planned a missionary activity that we are doing this Thursday. We are going to show some of the church Christmas videos and then some members will bear their testimonies. We hope it will be a great missionary tool!

Elders Boyd and ?

On Wednesday we had a bunch of lessons and it was a pretty normal day of work. Until we were out contacting and these guys that were super big druggies let us in. Of course we didn't realize it right away, but we started sharing a message with them and they seemed like they were super into it. Then their dad walked out and saw us a freaked out! Haha he totally kicked us out! 

Then we had a lesson with the Diard family. The lesson was great and the Spirit lead us to talk about repentance again! It's like the 4th time we have talked about it but they always seem interested in that message and I guess it is something they really need to understand for some reason.  But we are not about to question the Spirit!

Thursday was pretty busy. We went to the Church to try and see if we could make some invitations for our activity, but then we felt that we needed to go and see an investigator that we used to teach, her name is Rere. Rere used to be very good investigator, but apparently while she was taking the lessons she and her husband had a big fight about investigating the church. It was quite a while ago, but when we pulled up she was super happy! Her son had a lung infection that is super dangerous so she asked us to give him a blessing and the husband was there as well. So we went into the room with everyone and gave the son a blessing. The Spirit was super strong so we asked if we could talk a little bit and they said yes! Even the husband came to the lesson! What a miracle! 

So yeah the lesson was great and they both cried (even the husband). Yeah, that was a miracle this week! You just never know when people who you thought you might never teach again will suddenly be ready to receive the message of the gospel again! 

Later that night we went to see Leia and Floras dance recital (Diard family--Sebastian and Rosalie's two daughters) and man they are really good at Tahitian dancing. They are talented and it was fun that they asked us to come. Then we ate Mcdonalds with them which made sitting through a dance recital all worth it! Hahahaha!

During the weekend the Diard family had a little setback again, but we went a saw them and talked about it and tried to help them work through things. We almost lost them (that would have been the worst) but we left them that day with the Spirit and a good feeling. Later in the day on Saturday Sebastian sent a text and said that he is reading his scriptures and praying and asking God for help and Rosalie is doing the same! It looks like they are doing a lot better. I'm super proud of both of them. They have learned to turn to the Lord in times of trial and to let Him help them!

This week was super great. We had a lot of miracles and we saw the Lord's hand often. We may be able to set some baptismal dates this week!! Pray!!

Love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Boyd

Week 68: Elder Paxman returns home, Elder Ruff comes in as ZL

Hey guys! Sooo this week was a good one, but is was my last week with Elder Paxman.

On Monday we went to the market in Papeete so Elder P. could get some souvenirs for his family! But of course, a guy wanted to "Bible Bash" with Paxman and me, but we didn't engage. I hate that corn! Haha!

Tuesday was awesome. We had a load of lessons to do, it was super busy and super great!! We took Hiti and Nicolas to the genealogy center to help them find some of their ancestors and that was really cool. I even learned a little bit about my genealogy as well. Apparently mom or someone else already did a whole lot of my genealogy, so looks like I'm set; thanks mom or grandma or whoever it was!! :)

Hiti's baptism a few weeks ago

Wednesday we were prompted to visit a lady that we haven't seen in a long time because she wasn't really interested. When we showed up to her house she let us in and told us what had happened to her since we last tried going by her house. Apparently her granddaughter was recently diagnosed with cancer, so that is prompting questions that the Plan of Salvation can answer perfectly!!  Do we have the answer for her, or what?! Haha! It was a great opener so we started talking about that and she just started crying! We totally knew we were there for a reason.

Elders Boyd and Sovereign

We had Leader's Council again on Thursday and it was super great. It is always awesome to see my old buddies in the mission and to get inspired by the new messages. There were a lot of leaders in the Council (we can call it the Jedi Council) who went home today, so we are getting a lot of new newbies this transfer! It will be interesting.

Friday was a busy day of lessons and then we ate at a restaurant with the Teheiura family and it was super gooooooooooddddd food! Haha!

Squinting in to the sun after taking Nicolas to the Temple

We took Nicolas to the temple to go and do baptisms for the dead on Saturday and it was sooooo cool! He was so excited and ready to go!! When we were in the temple with him he was so happy and you could today tell that he was feeling the spirit!! As soon as we finished he said that he was going to come back every Saturday with his grandma!! Super awesome!!! Then we had a lesson with the Diard family and it was great. We ate with them, we ate like French people haha!

Sunday was a good, busy day. Paxman and I bore our testimonies and taught lessons.

Sorry this email was super short haha! I got on late today because this morning I had to drop off Paxman so he could do his final preparations to return home and then I had to handle all the transfers in my zone and and for the zone right next to us. The ZL's there were both super sick so they couldn't drive so I had to handle all of their transfers and then had to get my new companion (his name is Elder Ruff, he is super cool btw) so my head is still spinning! 

Elder Paxman, Hiti at his baptism, and Elder Boyd -- A good note for Paxman to finish on

But yeah, I'm still looooovvviinnnggg the mission, it's super great! The only thing that is tough is that I don't like saying "Goodbye" all the time!! Today was another day of goodbyes. Paxman and I served four months together and we had a lot of success. We fought hard for our baptisms and I'm proud of Paxman and the missionary he has become. He was a good example for me and I will miss him!!

Love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Boyd

Week 67: Miracles happen when children pray

Hey guys,

Last P-Day we went to Papenoo because Elder Paxman wanted to visit his old converts and ward that he served in when he started his mission -- like me except I was assigned to the Fa'aripo ward. Elder Paxman finishes his mission this week and is returning home, so it's a final hurrah for him. Then we had a killer FHE with a the Tuahu family who had invited an investigator, Sebastian (it's a different Sebastian) and yes, he is also from France, but he will soon be married to a Tahitian who is super active in the church, and Sebastian is super interested in our message and what the true church is all about.

Tuesday we had a great day of lessons, especially with the family Taiti. The dad is a member and has two kids. He felt that he should retake the missionary lessons with his family, so we have been doing lessons but just with him and his kids. The mom didnt want to, but we have been commiting them to pray every night as a family, and to read. They want to do lessons everyday!!! haha

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Sebastian which went super well. Lessons just go so well when the investigator is humble and ready to listen!! Then we had a lesson with the family Diard, which went super well also ... the wierd thing is that our two most potential investigators are French guys, hahaha. It's weird because French people are usually more stubborn when it comes to the gospel.

Thursday was a normal day -- nothing too special, but we found a new investigator.

Friday we had our district meeting. We had a lot of miracles in our district and zone this week -- it was awesome! Then we did a split with Elders Clements and Heiata. I was with Elder Heiata in their area. They are also the missionaries in the office so we had to do some of the office stuff, which gave Elder Clements a little break because they are super busy with all that, and they always go home just super beat haha!

Saturday was a good day. We had another lesson with the Taiti family, and guess what: THE MOM CAME!! She saw her kids saying prayers and reading and she wanted to come!!!!! Then we went to McDonalds with them -- the world is cursed with McDonalds: you cant get away from that garbage food!

On Sunday sooooo many investigators had come to church it was super great! Our gospel principles class was full!!!!!!! Then we did our weekly numbers report and the zone of Aru'e caught up to the other zones, so we are no longer the worst zone -- we are tied! We are super proud of our missionaries in the zone; they have worked sooo hard that these past few months we have had some awesome miracles happen.

Love, Elder Boyd

Week 66: Elder Cardon visits, Turning 20, and Orbecks are sealed in the Temple

Hello Family! This week was crazy awesome!

To start off, this whole week we had a General Authority Seventy (Elder Cardon and his wife) come to visit the Tahiti, Papeete mission.  He wanted to do a Leader's Council on Monday night, so all the Zone Leaders and STLS had a meeting with him, and the meeting was super fun! We talked about what this mission needs and what our missionaries need to be successful. It was interesting because the whole meeting was in English! What a change! We actually had to translate for the French/Tahitian missionaries and that was a first. After that, we ate a great dinner together.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we got back to work did a bunch of lessons. BTW Robert (the member who is blind) still comes with us almost everyday for a few hours, he has sooo much faith and we truly enjoy having him with us!

We had multi-zone conference with Elder Cardon on Thursday and it was really great. There is no question that when he speaks the Spirit is just working through him. He is just so in tune with the Spirit when he talks and testifies. He talked about a lot of great things but something that I really loved was when he talked about faith. He had been speaking about faith earlier and he was talking about recognizing the spirit, and then he asked if any one of us would be willing to come up to the pulpit and give a 3 minute discussion about it. He said to stand if we were willing.... it took me about 10 seconds to stand but I did. There were about 10 others that stood up with me. 

Elder Cardon then looked at all those that didn't stand was said, "How can you look an investigator in the eyes and tell them to exercise faith when you don't even have the faith and courage to stand up in front of a bunch of missionaries and talk about the spirit!" Holy, that was crazy! I learned a big lesson from that. He taught us that faith is what gives us courage and that we as missionaries need to have enough faith to stand all the time to share the gospel. It was a message that our mission really needed to hear. 

After the conference Elder Cardon picked a few missionaries to do interviews with and he picked me. It was just amazing in the interview. Elder Cardon just asked me where I was from, about my family, what I have learned most on my mission (I talked to him about repentance and what I have learned from the process of repentance and how it can change lives for the better) and then he told me some stuff that I really needed to hear. It was a great experience that I will never forget. He made me feel so proud to be a missionary. I know he was inspired of God to tell me what he told me, it made me so happy! He is seriously my favorite general authority.  He also told me to tell you guys this, "Thank you for giving your valiant son to the Lord for two years. The Lord is grateful for your sacrifice and he loves you both."

Friday was just awesome! The family Orbeck (the family I baptised in my first area last November) were sealed for time and all eternity in the temple! It was amazing! Christian, the father, asked me to be his escort for the endowment session, and they had Elder Teamotuaitau (my first companion/trainer) to be the witness for the sealing! 

I can't describe in words what I felt in the temple that day. During the sealing when I watched that family being sealed for eternity, was the best feeling I have had as a missionary. After the sealing Elder T and I could hardly hold it together.  We were the missionaries that baptised them, and then we got to be with them as they became a forever family. We gave each other a big hug and we were like, "Our mission was a success!" It was an awesome day for me and one I will never forget. Oh! And the Orbeck family surprised me with a big birthday celebration after the temple sealing.  It's so like them....it's their big day and they celebrate MY 20th birthday.  They are amazing people! I can't think of a better way to celebrate than exactly what happened today! 

On Saturday we had a sports activity with the ward in the morning and then Hitiarii was baptized. He is such a stud! After his baptism Paxman and I were talking to him and he said, "I truly love this church!" That was like music to an old guy's ear hairs hahaha! But it is true, this church is amazing, it's because it is the true church of Jesus Christ.

Sunday..."Charlie to Alpha 32...Charlie to Alpha 32... Baptism Confirmed...I repeat, Hiti was confirmed....mission was a success...over and out!" Just a little mission humor for you!

Love you lots!

Elder Boyd

Week 65: Nicolas gets baptized and confirmed

Hey guys!

So this week was killer!

After we finished our emails on Monday we went and played basketball with a few priests from our ward. They are a good group of kids and it's fun that they like to hang with us. It reminds of the good ole days with my buddies in the Moyle Park ward!

On Tuesday Paxman and I went to check on Nicolas and we were freaking out just a little because Nikolas went over to Moorea with his mom for the week.  We really wanted to stay close to him the week before his baptism but we were told he wouldn't be back until Thursday. So yeah, we were a little stressed out because we wanted to be there if anything got in his way. We prayed so hard during the entire week for him and asked the spirit to protect and watch over him.  The rest of the day was great. We did a ton of lessons, haha!

I dropped Paxman off at the boats on Wednesday morning because it was the day that we do splits with some missionaries on Moorea. I picked up Elder Frazer, and the split was so funny because he is just a crazy Vanuatu kid!! He is honestly a blast! Since I have been here in Tahiti I have had the chance to  meet many different kinds of Polynesians. I've met  Fijians, Vanuatus, Tongans, Wallisiens, Futunas, Caledonians, New Zealanders, etc. and they all have very different things about them since they come from different cultures. Vanuatu's are just super crazy! They remind me of my little brother B but even a little bit more crazy haha! It was a super fun day and we got a lot done.I gotta say I love the Fijians too. Every person I have meet that is from Fiji is awesome. They are so funny, down to earth and so nice.

Thursday came and Nicolas came back! So we hurried over to check on him and did his interview and made sure we was ready. He was good to go!! Then we did a bunch of lessons to finish out the day.

We couldn't wait for Friday. It was time for Nicolas' baptism. I love baptism days. It just feels so good, waking up in the morning and going to the church to fill up the baptismal font and setting up the room for the baptismal program! The ward came out to support Nicolas with all sorts of food to eat after the baptism. Brother Momo, who is from fiji, makes brownies; like the brownies you eat in America sooooooo I died and went to heaven! Nicolas showed up and was super happy and his grandma (Meme is what we like to call her) was so happy.  Meme his is the grandma that I told you guys about. She is the perfect grandma that feeds you everything and is just a classic grandma all the way around! 

Nicolas was baptised by his uncle and as soon as he was baptised it started pouring rain. It was really beautiful and pretty cool. Then Nicolas shared his testimony and it honestly changed me. He stood up and started talking about his childhood and how his childhood was focused around surfing, skating, kitesurfing and just trying to have fun at every turn. Then he talked about when his parents were separated (he was crying during his whole testimony btw) and how he couldn't find any happiness in his life. His family had problems and his mom moved to New Zealand with his brother. He said that there were multiple times that he tried to commit suicide because there was no happiness in his life! While he was a child he never learned about God, because his dad is very inactive and didn't discuss things like that with him. He thought that God didn't exist.  Then about a  year ago he moved to Arue next to his grandma, who raised her kids in the gospel. Even though Nicolas' dad was raised in the church he was the one child who was not active. 

Grandma Meme invited Nicolas to church one day and he loved it! Then he met Paxman and me and he decided to start taking the lessons.  We taught him how to pray, taught him the commandments, and he developed a belief in God because he could feel Him when he went to church and prayed.  

He told us that while he was in Moorea that week, he could feel God's presence with him and he knew that what he was about to do was right! There it was again, God watching over his children. Nicolas' testimony was so powerful! Paxman and I had no idea what he had gone through before we met him. When we met him he seemed like a happy kid, that loved life, who had never had the opportunity to learn about the truth of the gospel. We just knew we needed to teach him!! And while Paxman and I were freaking that Nicolas had gone to Moorea earlier that week, God surely answered our prayers by comforting Nicolas and preparing him for his baptism. God is amazing, Nicolas in going to be a great missionary and leader in this church!

On Sunday Nicolas was confirmed. I remember when he sat down in the chair before the blessing started he looked up at me and gave me a smile. After he was confirmed I saw him open his eyes, and his eyes were completely different, there was a certain light in his eyes! It honestly took me back. I know now that it was the Holy Ghost that is now with him.  The gospel changes people and changes their lives.

This week was awesome, I learned that if we but trust in God he will help us! He is mindful of all of his children. We just need to let him do His part of the work and be a tool in his hands here on earth.

Have a great week!

Connor