Hey everyone!
This week was a very awesome week! There is a lot to talk about but I am just going to jump to Wednesday night!
So Craig (the guy who owns the famous restaurant out here) invited all six of us missionaries to his house! He is American, quite wealthy, and so generous to us missionaries! He made us burritos and it was so flipping awesome...holy heck haha...because it's been so long since I ate Mexican food! Delicious!! We started talking about all of the famous people that he has met because of his restaurant. He told us that the rudest celebrity was Eddie Murphy (kind of surprising); he said that Johnny Depp was kinda weird (not surprising), Dwight Howard is super cool, Leonardo Dicaprio was super awesome and nice, and then he said that Carrie Underwood just glows and Megan Fox looks just like she does in Transformers and she is super nice as well. Just a little piece of insider Hollywood information for you all! Hahaha!
Thursday night we had a little problem. Taurahiti called us late that night and told us to cancel his baptism which was scheduled for Saturday. So we went straight to his house to talk to him to see what was worrying him and to calm him down. He was having a small problem with his family so we talked about it and I gave him a blessing and he felt a lot better! He always says when there is a problem that "It's Satan, trying to prevent him from doing the will of God" which is true!
Saturday was a great day! We had four baptisms.......... so you can see that it was an amazing week! We showed up at the baptism and we saw our four scheduled baptisms (that's always a relief). I'll tell you a little about them:
Purea Atiu: She just got married to Mana Atiu just a couple of weeks ago and Mana baptized her! The cool thing about that is that Mana hasn't been taking the sacrament for 15 years, but he has slowly worked his way back to the church and this week he was ready and worthy to baptize and confirm his wife! When she was baptized she was so happy and Mana was as well..they both had this giddy smile on their faces! It was great to see.
Tepoe: She lives with the Atiu family and so we would teach her all the time when we were over there. She was a really tough investigator and really asked a lot of questions...it was good. She was Catholic before and her family is Catholic (they live in Tahiti). She knew this church was true for a long time, it was just hard for her to join because of her family and her fear of what might happen if she was baptized. In our lessons together, you could tell that she wasn't confident in herself, she would always cry in the lessons and stuff and was just worried. But when she was baptized and after when she bore her testimony, you could see in her eyes the she was happy and had confidence in herself and the decision she made. Wow!
Taurahiti: He had it super hard before the baptism (like I told you above). He had many problems with his mom and dad and so many little problems in just his own little family. His wife is Mormon and is active and everything! Right before his baptism i was sitting next to him and he looked super tired and worn out. I asked him how he was doing, and he said, "Satan is strong man, he's doing all he can", but he was still here at his baptism. After he was baptized and confirmed you could see that a weight was lifted off of his shoulders. I think great things are in store for him.
Sylvain: Sylvain is a quieter man, he doesn't talk very much, but I have never seen more faith in a human being! His wife is Protestant and she doesn't like the Mormon church, but he started taking lessons with us and he felt something and followed it. Two hours before his baptism, his wife left him! He still showed up to his baptism with watery eyes and all, and I remembered that I shared a verse with him from D&C 19:23. It says that if we follow the Lord we will have peace! So when I was talking to him and he told me the news about his wife I just didn't know what to say but he said in his quiet voice, "I'll have peace." He was baptised, and he asked me to confirm him and I was honored to do it for him. When it was all over I asked him how he was doing and he said, "I have peace."
So this week I realized just how powerful Satan is; the guy will do anything that he can to prevent people from following Christ! But I realized that faith can be stronger! Faith is what pushed Mana and his wife, Purea, to get married and pushed Mana to get where he needed to be to be baptized. Faith pushed Tepoe through the barrier of fear. Faith pushed Taurahiti through this week of nothing but trials. Faith carried Sylvain to follow Christ even when his wife wasn't behind him. You can see the result for each one was positive and I know they will be blessed! If we have faith in Christ, even in hard times or when times are super scary, our consequence will be positive and God will fill our lives with hope and love!
Love you guys!!
Elder Connor Boyd
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