Hey guys!
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| 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
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